Superfruits

Citation

(2009), "Superfruits", Nutrition & Food Science, Vol. 39 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/nfs.2009.01739bab.005

Superfruits

Article Type: Food facts From: Nutrition & Food Science, Volume 39, Issue 2.

For sheer health appeal, you can't beat the blues. When it comes to superfruits, the blueberry is king after all, this is the fruit that turned the muffin into a health food must-have. The delicious, deep purple-blue berry is bursting with disease-fighting nutrients, particularly antioxidants called anthocyanins that give the blueberry it's distinctive deep colour.

Indeed, blueberries score highly on the ORAC scale, that's short for Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity, a rating system for antioxidant power beating fruits such as oranges, raspberries and strawberries and even antioxidant-rich veggies such as kale, spinach and broccoli by miles.

To name the health benefits of blueberries would probably take up a small book. Anthocyanins, for instance, have been linked with numerous health-giving effects, including vascular system support studies suggest that blueberries are far more cardioprotective than red wine, for instance and boosting eye health too. They may also help protect against cancer, thanks again to their antioxidant action, as well as help relieve gastrointestinal and urinary tract health problems.

Only recently, Canadian researchers writing in the British Journal of Nutrition reported that just two cups of blueberries a day may reduce your cholesterol level by more than 10 per cent. Well, at least they did in pigs, who have similar cholesterol levels to humans.

“Flavonoids may act as antioxidants to inhibit LDL oxidation and thereby protect against vascular insult by oxidation, says Wilhelmina Kalt of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. Flavonoids may also reduce vascular inflammation related to atherosclerosis.”

Another recent animal-based study suggests blueberries could reduce age-related memory problems. Researchers at the University of Reading and the Peninsula Medical School.

“This study not only adds science to the claim that eating blueberries are good for you, it also provides support to a diet-based approach that could potentially be used to increase memory capacity and performance in the future”, claims Dr Matt Witterman of the Institute of Biomedical and Clinical Science, Peninsula Medical School.

Blueberries may even help prevent post-menopausal osteoporosis, say researchers writing in the Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry. Scientists from Florida and Oklahoma State Universities discovered that blueberries protect against bone loss in rats whose ovaries had been removed.

They may also help dieters lose weight, say New Zealand and US researchers, whose study found that rats who were fed blueberry extracts ate about eight per cent less food than other rats who didn't get any blueberries. “Although the precise mechanisms which underlie the satiating effects of blueberry extract are not fully understood, it may trigger receptors for amino acids which have been detected in the wall of the upper intestine”, say the researchers.

For more information see www.powerfruits.co.uk

Further reading

Devareddy, L., Hooshmand, S., Collins, J.K., Lucas, E.A., Chai, S.C. and Arjmandi, B.H. (2007), “Blueberry prevents bone loss in ovariectomized rat model of postmenopausal osteoporosis”, The Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry, doi:10.1016/j.jnutbio.2007.09.004.

Kalt, W., Kim Foote, S.A.E., Fillmore, M.L., Van Lunen, T.A. and McRae, K.B. (2008), “Effect of blueberry feeding on plasma lipids in pigs”, British Journal of Nutrition, Vol. 100 No. 1, July, pp. 70-78.

Molan, A.L., Lila, M.A. and Mawson, J. (n.d.), “Satiety in rats following blueberry extract consumption induced by appetite-suppressing mechanisms unrelated to in vitro or in vivo antioxidant capacity”, Food Chemistry, Vol. 107 No. 3, pp. 1039-44.

Williams, C.M., El Mohsen, M.A., Vauzour, D., Rendeiro, C., Butler, L.T., Ellis, J.A., Whiteman, M. and Spencer, J.P. (2008), “Blueberry-induced changes in spatial working memory correlate with changes in hippocampal CREB phosphorylation and BDNF levels”, Free Radical Biology and Medicine, Vol. 45 No. 3, August, pp. 295-305.