Blueberries, the Ultimate Superfood: Unlocking the Power of Blue
I want to dive into looking at blueberries in this post. They’ll be ready to pick fresh shortly in our area. But they’re easy to find in the grocery store fresh or frozen year round. Picking your own fresh is the way to go. These little berries are great for you. They contain vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants.
What’s Packed in Blueberries
Blueberries contain vitamins like A (<2%), C (10-19%), and K (10-19%) [1]. They also contain folate (<2%), potassium (2-9%), calcium (<2%), iron (<2%), and fiber (2-9%) [1]. Percentages are daily value based on a half cup. As you can see they are a good source of vitamin C along with other antioxidants that support brain and heart health. Then vitamin K contributes to healthy bones and blood. The plant compounds that may account for their health benefits are anthocyanins and quercetin. Both are pigments that give the berries their blue color. These pigments are known as flavonoid. These flavonoids are recognized for their antioxidant properties and potential health benefits.[1]
Selecting and Storing Blueberries
When looking for blueberries, look for plump, unwrinkled ones. You want them fully blue. When selecting from the store make sure the container is free of stains and mold. It is best to use fresh berries in a week. Do not store them in plastic bags unless you are putting them in the freezer. It is best to leave them in the containers they came in. You can freeze them and they’ll hold their nutrients well other than they lose some vitamin C.
Blueberries Benefits
A majority of the benefits that we get from blueberries is from the flavonoid, anthocyanins. Here are some potential benefits of eating blueberries.
Heart and Cognitive Health
The anthocyanin in blueberries may help with lower cholesterol and blood pressure. It could help prevent plaque buildup and reduce cholesterol from being oxidized. Also it could prevent inflammatory damage to the blood vessel lining. A study using blueberry supplements reported a decrease in systolic BP and diastolic BP in prehypertensive individuals with metabolic syndrome disorders. [2] Another study with freeze-dried wild blueberry powder showed an improvement in vascular and cognitive function. It also showed decreased 24 hour ambulatory systolic BP. [3]
Blood Sugar Control
Eating berries rich in polyphenols (like anthocyanins) have shown some promise for helping with blood sugar levels. A study on blueberries and cranberries showed a reduction in fasting blood glucose. It also reduce glycated hemoglobin levels in individuals with diabetes. [4] Another study using fresh blueberries came back with results of improved glucose management and insulin levels[5].
Helps with Oxidative Stress
Oxidative stress is the lack of equilibrium between two types of molecules in your body. These molecules are free radicals and antioxidants. Having too many of these free radicals in your body starts hurting body cells and tissue. This stress can cause all different sorts of damage to your body. Things like bone and skin damage, cancer, cardiovascular and kidney disease, rheumatoid arthritis, and more. Some environmental factors that increase these free radicals are environmental pollution, smoking and tobacco use, drinking too much alcohol, too much sun exposure to name some.
So how do blueberries help with oxidative stress? The antioxidants in blueberries neutralize these free radicals. If we go back to science class we learned that atoms typically like an even number of electrons. Both free radicals and antioxidants have an odd number of electrons. So the free radicals can borrow one from the antioxidants, which then stabilizes the free radicals. [6]
Wrap up
Blueberries are a very beneficial fruit with its nutrients and vitamins. They’re not only a sweet fruit to eat. They have what appears to be great health benefits from the anthocyanins they contain. It helps with oxidative stress that can cause damage to your cells that can lead to chronic diseases. It’s a superfood that you should consider reaching for at the grocery store or the farmers market.
[1] https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/wasnap-ed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/Farm-Fresh-Blueberries.pdf
[2] https://fppn.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s43014-023-00139-y
[3] https://ajcn.nutrition.org/article/S0002-9165(23)46300-9/fulltext
[4] https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/287710
[5] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33922965/
[6] https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/oxidative-stress
Other Blueberry related articles to check out.
7 Proven Health Benefits of Blueberries [Healthline]
Health Benefits of Blueberries [WebMD]
Everything to know about blueberries [Medical News Today]
Recent Research on the Health Benefits of Blueberries and Their Anthocyanins [National Library of Medicine]
