Blueberries – Anti inflammatory Super Food

25 July 2006

Blue berries – Anti inflammatory Super Food

The good news about blue berries just keeps on getting better, with new research confirming nature’s only blue fruit is a powerhouse of nutrients to combat the “Three Big Bogeys” of aging - arthritis – Alzheimer’s and atherosclerosis.

Blue berries are number one in antioxidant activity, compared to 40 other fruits and vegetables (Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University). For most of us, just adding half a cup of blue berries to our diets would double our daily anti oxidant intake.

Blue berries – Great Arthritis Food

A host of studies are showing the anti-inflammatory properties of blue berries make them a great arthritis food as they appear to prevent and relieve arthritic symptoms, to boost the protective proteins in the brain and help cells repair damage that can lead to a host of aging-related diseases and conditions.

According to Anne Underwood, author of The New Superfoods – “Researchers now believe that inflammation contributes to heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer’s and type II diabetes — and that anti-inflammatory compounds in your food can counteract it.”

Blue berries – Add to Alzheimers Diet

A slew of new evidence confirms earlier blue berry research that suggests the little blue fruit is a good addition to anti Alzheimers diets. Elderly rats fed blue berry extract beat younger rats on memory tests at the University of Houston. Diets rich in blue berries, spinach and spirulina reversed normal age-related declines in memory and learning in old rats. And blueberries (as well as spinach and spirulina) reduced stroke damage in lab animals. In human terms, the animals ate about 1 cup of blue berries a day.

Blue berries - Reduce stroke damage

Researchers at University of South Florida College of Medicine, James A. Haley Veterans' Hospital and the National Institute on Drug Abuse, found that rats fed diets preventatively enriched with blue berries, spinach or spirulina experienced less brain cell loss and improved recovery of movement following a stroke.

"The size of the stroke was 50 to 75 per cent less in rats treated with diets supplemented with blue berries, spinach or spirulina before the stroke," says a lead researcher, who suggests antioxidant and anti-inflammatory substances in the fruits and vegetables may somehow reduce the nerve cell injury and death triggered by a stroke.

Blue berries - Assist post-stroke movement

Rats fed spirulina-enriched diets had stroke lesions 75 per cent smaller than their untreated counterparts. In addition, rats pretreated with the blue berry, spinach or spirulina diets showed greater increases in post-stroke movement than the control group.
Full findings are available posted online and were published in the May 2005 issue of the journal Experimental Neurology.

Blue berries for Anti Aging

Compounds in blue berries could protect against the oxidative stress behind aging, and could even protect astronauts from dangerous galactic radiation, suggests a new study partly supported by NASA.

The study exposed rats to radiation to mirror effects observed during the natural process of ageing. Rats fed a diet supplemented with either strawberry or blue berry extracts for eight weeks before exposure to the radiation were protected from some of the reductions in brain function.

Blue berries for Liver Cancer

Incorporating blue berries into your diet could reduce liver cancer risks: according to a new study, published recently in the journal Food Research International (Vol. 39, pp. 628-638), which found polyphenols in blue berries retarded cancer cell growth.

Blue berries for Atherosclerosis

Compounds in blue berries make blood vessel walls more resistant to oxidative stress that could lead to cardiovascular disease. The study results, published in the Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry (Vol 17, pp 109-116), add to the other reports in the literature linking the berry to lowering cholesterol, and protecting against cancer and neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's. Researchers have also found a compound in blue berries similar to resveratrol in red wine could be as effective as a widely used synthetic drug in reducing cholesterol.

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