New research suggests grapes may offer surprising benefits for skin health by changing how genes behave in the body. Earlier clinical trials showed that eating grapes could improve resistance to UV radiation in about 30% to 50% of people. Now, scientists say the effects appear to be much broader and may influence nearly everyone in some way.
The findings were published in ACS Nutrition Science.
In the study, volunteers ate the equivalent of three servings of whole grapes each day for two weeks. Researchers then examined gene expression in the participants’ skin before and after grape consumption, both with and without exposure to low levels of UV radiation.
Grapes Trigger Changes in Skin Gene Expression
The researchers discovered that every participant had a distinct pattern of gene activity in their skin at the start of the study. Those patterns shifted after eating grapes and also changed following UV exposure.
Additional differences appeared when grape consumption and UV exposure were combined. Although the responses varied from person to person, scientists found that grape consumption altered gene expression in all participants.
The results suggest grapes may influence biological pathways connected to skin protection and repair.
Stronger Skin Barrier and Reduced Oxidative Stress
When the researchers analyzed the large amount of genetic data, they found evidence pointing to increased keratinization and cornification. These processes help create the skin’s outer protective barrier and can improve defense against environmental stress.
The team also exposed skin to low doses of UV radiation and measured malondialdehyde, a marker associated with oxidative stress. Participants who consumed grapes showed lower levels of this marker, suggesting reduced oxidative stress after UV exposure.
Scientists Call Grapes a Nutrigenomic “Superfood”
“We are now certain that grapes act as a superfood and mediate a nutrigenomic response in humans,” said John Pezzuto, Ph.D., Professor and Dean of the College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences at Western New England University. “We observed this with the largest organ of the body, the skin. The changes in gene expression indicated improvements in skin health. But beyond skin, it is nearly certain that grape consumption affects gene expression in other somatic tissues of the body, such as liver, muscle, kidney, and even brain. This helps us to understand how consumption of a whole food, in this case grapes, affects our overall health. It’s very exciting to be working in the post-genomics era where we can finally start to employ functional genomics and actually visualize complex matrices indicative of nutrigenomic responses.”
Reference: “Inter- and Intraindividual Variation of Gene Expression in Human Skin Following Grape Consumption and/or Exposure to Ultraviolet Irradiation” by Asim Dave, Sumi Piya, Dana-Lynn T. Koomoa, Ingo Lange, Jaewoo Choi, Richard B. van Breemen and John M. Pezzuto, 13 May 2026, ACS Nutrition Science.
DOI: 10.1021/acsnutrsci.6c00003
The study was conducted by researchers at Western New England University in Springfield, Massachusetts, together with collaborators from Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon. Funding for the research was provided by the California Table Grape Commission.
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