Are Mangoes Good for You? 5 Outstanding Benefits Of This Fruit 2024

Are mangoes good for you? Yes, they are, and on a variety of levels. The polyphenol-rich mango is packed with many health benefits such as good nutrition, disease prevention, and lots of dietary fiber, plus they are downright delicious.

This tasty tropical fruit is an excellent way to spice up any fruit salad or borning snack. The 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend eating 2.5 cups of fresh fruit daily, including mangos, to increase the variety of key nutrients in this tropical fruit.

Read on to find out how eating mangoes can benefit your health.

Nutrition Facts of Mango

Nutritional Facts^[1] are per 1 cup of fresh, diced mangoes 

• Calories: 105 calories
• Protein: 1 gram
• Fat: 0.5 grams
• Carbohydrate: 25 grams
• Fiber: 6 grams
• Vitamin C: 60 milligrams
• Vitamin A: 89 micrograms
• Potassium: 277 milligrams

5 Health Benefits of Mango

Eating mangoes has many health benefits. Here are the top 5 benefits of eating mango.

Cancer Prevention

Mangoes contain over 12 different types of polyphenols^[2]. Polyphenols are plant compounds that are very high in antioxidants. Antioxidants are especially important for your body because they can fight off free radicals. 

Free radicals are unstable molecules in the body. If free radicals become too concentrated in the body, they can cause conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, and the promotion of cancer growth factors. Thus, antioxidants help fight off potentially cancerous molecules.  

Specifically, one polyphenol, mangiferin, has been researched^[3] and shown to prevent tumor growth in a few different cancers, including breast, lung, and colon. 

Also, mangoes contain another specific type of antioxidant^[4], beta-carotene. Beta-carotene has also been studied for its cancer prevention benefits and has been shown to prevent breast cancer^[5], lung cancer^[6], and pancreatic cancer^[7].

Healthy Immune System

Vitamin C^[8] is essential for your immune system in a few ways:

• Encourages the body to create more white blood cells, which helps fight against infections.
• Protects white blood cells from getting hurt by free radicals.
• Decreases inflammation in the body because it is a powerful antioxidant.  

Vitamin C also helps strengthen your skin’s integrity and helps with wound healing, contributing to less invasion of germs into the body.

In addition, studies have shown that people with higher levels of vitamin C^[9] tend to have better health outcomes than those with lower levels.  

Food research shows that one diced cup of sliced fresh mango^[1] provides about 70% of your daily vitamin C needs. One cup also provides about 25% of your vitamin A needs. 

Vitamin A is also helpful to your immune function as it protects and helps to strengthen the skin and mucus integrity of your body. 

Digestive Health

Mangoes have a decent amount of dietary fiber that can aid digestion. Just one cup^[1] has about 10% of your daily fiber needs. The fiber content of mangoes has been studied in people with chronic constipation. 

But another reason they are studied is that, beyond soluble fiber, mangoes contain lots of polyphenols^[10] that protect the gastric system and help with inflammation.  

The combination of these nutritional features in mangoes makes them an excellent choice for people suffering from constipation. 

For example, in 2018^[10], a study was published that showed people with chronic constipation were able to significantly improve their daily movements with consistent consumption of mangoes over four weeks.  

Another study^[11] examined rats fed a high-fat diet and their gut microbiome. The gut microbiome is the ecosystem of good and bad bacteria in our digestive system. After being fed fresh mango for a few weeks, the gut flora of the mice was greatly improved. 

Additionally, the mango tree leaves are currently being studied^[12] for their potential for anti-diarrheal properties. Presently, studies are just animal based. But, the global use of dried mango tree leaves for various gastric ailments is widespread. 

Furthermore, eating this tropical fruit is associated with increased healthy fatty acids in the blood due to the mango’s high water and fiber content.  

Skin Health

Mangos are high in vitamin C^[1]. Vitamin C is essential for skin health as it plays a significant role in synthesizing collagen. Collagen is the main protein in your skin, bones, muscles, hair, tendons, and ligaments. It’s what keeps your skin tight and plump. It also helps to give your skin a more youthful glow and appearance.  

Vitamin C is not only important^[13] for collagen production, but it also has benefits for skin cells. Vitamin C has been shown^[14] to prevent and treat cells damaged by UV light. UV light damage is one of the main reasons for aging skin. 

The other beneficial effects of vitamin C and the skin is not well understood. However, vitamin C supplementation’s most significant results are seen when combined^[15] with vitamin E and zinc^[16]. Mangoes contain small amounts of these vitamins and are, therefore, a good choice for skin health. 

Blood Sugar Control

Interestingly, mangos are high in natural sugars, yet, they can lower your risk of developing diabetes. Multiple studies^[17] have shown that a diet high in fresh fruit (including eating mangoes) is linked to a lower risk of diabetes.  

Ripe mangoes are also considered a low glycemic index (GI) food. The Glycemic index^[18] ranks foods according to their effect on blood sugar levels. The scale ranges from 0 – 100, with 0 being no effect on blood glucose and 100 significantly affecting your blood sugar.

Mango fruit is considered a low gi food as it ranks 51 on the glycemic scale. Of note, any food under 55^[18] is considered a low gi food. Remember that this is true for only fresh mangoes. 

A lot of people question whether dried mangoes are good for you. Dried mangos tend to spike blood sugar levels. This is because they are drenched in sugar (or other sweeteners) to be made shelf-stable.

They are also commonly saturated with synthetic colors and preservatives to make them look and taste as delicious as possible.

Risks of Mangoes

Consuming mangoes are generally considered safe. However, always be aware of the signs of an allergic reaction:  

• Swelling of the mouth, lips, tongue
• Itchy or scratchy throat
• Difficulty swallowing or breathing
• Abdominal pain, cramps, bloating
• Vomiting
• Hives, eczema, or rash

Mangoes also contain a distinctive type of carbohydrates called fermentable carbohydrates. These include 

• Oligosaccharides
• Disaccharides
• Monosaccharides
• Polyols

Fermentable carbohydrates are formed from short chains of sugar molecules, making them effortless to break down. Therefore, if you are prone to specific stomach issues like IBS, colitis, or Crohn’s, you might want to be aware and eat small amounts of these foods as they can cause stomach discomfort.  

Interestingly, people who are allergic to latex^[19] are often allergic to mangos. This is because the mango skin contains proteins similar in structure to the protein found in latex, and sensitivity may develop to this tropical fruit. The sensitivity may be so severe that a person may react by coming in contact with the mango skin.

Always contact your doctor or other health professionals before starting any new diet or food routine.  

How to Eat Mangoes?

Sliced mango is delicious and easy to eat as a snack or add to other dishes. However, it may be challenging to figure out how to cut it open and get the fruit out if you have never done it before.  

How to slice a mango:

• Ensure you hold the mango lengthwise, then cut vertically, ¼ inch away from the middle.
• Make the identical cut on the opposite side 
• Cut the flesh in a grid-like pattern without piercing the skin of the mango
• Use a spoon to scoop the cubes of fresh mango from the skin
• Most people do not eat the mango peel as it is tough

Once you have your fruit cut into pieces, you can enjoy mango raw or include it in healthy recipe ideas

• Mix into salsas with a splash of lime juice and place on top of fish or chicken
• Add it into a fruit salad with other tropical fruits such as kiwi or dragonfruit
• Add to smoothies
• Add to ice cream or yogurt

A lot of people wonder if mango juice is good for you. Mango juice^[20] contains many essential nutrients, including vitamins such as A, C, B, E, and K, and minerals like potassium, calcium, magnesium, phosphorous, iron, selenium, and sodium.  

However, this all comes loaded with a lot of sugar and no fiber. Therefore, mango juice provides a lot of nutrition but also a lot of calories and sugar. It’s always best to eat whole fruit to get the fiber benefits; thus, it won’t make your blood sugars skyrocket. 

Mango nectar is also not good for you. Mango nectar is mango pulp blended with water and sweetener (typically simple syrup). Therefore, you are losing fiber and getting all of the sweetener’s natural sugar plus added sugar.  

Of note, mango supplementation pills are sometimes used for weight loss, cholesterol control, and obesity. Unfortunately, there is not enough medical research to know whether these supplement pills can help you to lose weight or help with weight control. 

Conclusion: Are Mangoes Healthy?

To summarize how mangoes are good for you, mangoes are rich in nutrients like antioxidants, polyphenols, fiber, vitamins, and minerals. This mixture of nutrients helps prevent cancer, control blood sugars and benefit your immune system and skin health. 

Best of all, mangoes are tropical fruit that tastes like junk food because they are sweet and delicious. However, they are super healthy and easy to add to your diet. 

---