Grapes vs Watermelon – Which is Healthier?

Our Verdict

When comparing grapes to watermelon, we picked the watermelon.

Why?

In terms of macros, there’s really nothing between them; grapes have slightly more carbs and fiber, but the difference are minimal and they effectively cancel each other out anyway, so the fairest conclusion for this first round is a tie.

In the category of vitamins, grapes have more of vitamins B1, B2, B6, and K, while watermelon has more of vitamins A, B5, B7, and C, for a 4:4 tie.

Looking at minerals, grapes have more calcium, iron, manganese, and potassium, while watermelon has more copper, magnesium, phosphorus, selenium, and zinc, for a marginal win in this round.

When it comes to antioxidants, both fruits are good, but watermelon is the more potent source. Grapes famously contain resveratrol, and they also contain quercetin, albeit you’d have to eat quite a lot of grapes to get a large portion. Now, having to eat a lot of grapes might not sound like a terrible fate (who else finds that the grapes are gone by the time the groceries are put away?), but we are comparing the fruits here, and on a list of “100 best foods for quercetin”, for example, grapes took 99th place. Watermelon’s main antioxidant meanwhile is lycopene, and watermelon is one of the best sources of lycopene in existence (better even than tomatoes). So this round’s another win for watermelon.

Adding up the sections makes for a modest overall win for watermelon, but by all means do enjoy either or both, as diversity is best!

Want to learn more?

You might like:

• Lycopene’s Benefits For The Gut, Heart, Brain, & More
• Can We Drink To Good Health? ← while there are polyphenols such as resveratrol that makes it through the process of turning into red wine that per se would boost heart health, there’s so little per glass that you may need 100–1000 glasses per day to get the dosage that provides benefits in mouse studies*.

*If you’re not a mouse, you might even need more than that!

To this end, many people prefer resveratrol supplementation ← link is to an example product on Amazon, but there are plenty more so feel free to shop around 😎