Who doesn’t want to be that little bit healthier? Especially if improving your health involves minimal effort. With this in mind we’ve made it our mission to bring you news each week of a product, a foodstuff, an exercise technique or a pill that promises potentially magical health-giving properties.
By Robert Carry
This week’s magic ingredient: Blueberries.
They don’t taste the worst, to be honest. Where do they come from? Can you pick them at the side of the M50 like with blackberries? Unlike their freebie cousins the blackberry, blueberries are only really native to North America. That said, these flowering plants, that are close relations of the cranberry and bilberry, are cultivated for human consumption all over the world these days, so they’re not too hard to come across.
I’m guessing they’re good for you… Blueberries are considered a ‘superfood’, and given the numerous benefits of eating them it seems an accurate moniker. They contain significant amounts of antioxidants, anthocyanins, vitamin C, manganese and dietary fibre.
So what will they do for you? Studies suggest blueberries have numerous health benefits. They contain antioxidant pigments and various phytochemicals which are believed to help reduce the risk of some skin diseases including inflammation and certain cancers. Eating them regularly can also alleviate the cognitive decline occurring in Alzheimer’s disease and other conditions of ageing, while feeding blueberries to animals lowered brain damage in experimental stroke. They can prevent urinary tract infections, lower cholesterol, blood pressure and reduce the symptoms of heart disease.
A study soon to be published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry also found that supplementation with wild blueberry juice enhanced memory and learning in older adults, while reducing blood sugar and symptoms of depression. The fact that they are so full of anti-oxidants means they reduce the presence of free radicals which cause cell damage. They fix everything bar broken legs.
What if you’re not mad about chomping through a punnet of berries, can they be eaten in other forms? Although blueberries are most commonly sold fresh, you can also get them quick frozen, as purée, or in a juice. They are now also being used dried in cereals, in muffins and in jellies, jams and pies. That said, you will get the most out of them if eaten fresh.
Where do you get them? They are very readily available – sold in most supermarkets and many fruit and veg shops.
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