THE MIRACLE BERRY

Prevention Magazine

If you add one healthy food to your diet this year, make it blueberries. Calorie for calorie, luscious blueberries have recently emerged as the single most ferocious healthy food in the supermarket at halting the forces that age you. Even the scientists who study blueberries are excited.

Every second of your life, your cells are bombarded by dangerous particles called free radicals. In a split second, they can alter your DNA in ways that cause cancer. Or change LDL cholesterol (the bad cholesterol) so it sticks to artery walls. Or damage collagen and make skin wrinkle-prone. Over time, changes such as these accelerate your aging.

Fortunately, you can fight back. The trick is to load your diet with antioxidants--the natural zappers of free radicals--by eating lots of fruits and vegetables. And that's where the incredible blueberries come in. The amazing little blueberry has emerged as nature's number one healthy food source of antioxidants among fresh fruits and vegetables.

In tests at the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University in Boston, blueberries beat out 39 other common fruits and vegetables in antioxidant power--even such heavyweights as kale, strawberries, spinach, and broccoli. Much of that power comes literally "out of the blue"--from anthocyanins, the pigments that give blueberries their deep blue hue. Blueberries are bursting with them.

So impressed is Ronald Prior, PhD, head of the USDA Phytochemical Laboratory at Tufts and the scientist who discovered the secret power of blueberries, that he now recommends adding 1/2 cup of blueberries to your diet every day--a far cry from our current average intake of about 2 1/2 cups a year!

"With 1/2 cup of blueberries, you can just about double the amount of antioxidants most Americans get in one day. If you want to slow down the free radical aging process, blueberries are the leader of the pack," he says. "At our house, we always keep blueberries in the freezer."

However, Dr. Prior urges you not to choose only fruits and vegetables that are high in antioxidants. Tomatoes, for example, are fairly low in antioxidants but are a rich source of lycopene, which has been linked to lower rates of prostate cancer and heart disease. The best healthy food advice? Eat blueberries in addition to the fruits and vegetables you already eat, not to replace them.

The most intriguing news about blueberries is this: There's a possibility they can actually reverse the loss of short-term memory that happens as we age, says James Joseph, PhD, a USDA scientist at Tufts.

Dr. Joseph explains that as rats age, they forget how to find their way through mazes that they previously had learned to navigate. But when he and his colleagues supplemented the diets of some older rats with blueberry extract for two months, they actually improved their navigational skills in the same mazes. The rats' balance, coordination, and running speed also improved.

Though these results are still very preliminary, Dr. Joseph calls them "very exciting." The next step: to identify the compounds responsible for this effect and eventually test them in humans. Meantime, Dr. Joseph and his wife have begun eating blueberries regularly.

Just like their cousin the cranberry, blueberries contain compounds that can prevent urinary tract infections (UTIs), according to recent findings at the Rutgers Blueberry Cranberry Research Center in Chatsworth, NJ.

Called condensed tannins, they can keep the bacteria responsible for UTIs from attaching to the wall of your bladder, says Rutgers scientist Amy B. Howell, PhD. And yes, she eats blueberries. "In season, I eat a huge amount--maybe a pint a day."

In Japan, blueberries are known as "the vision fruit"--reputed to help relieve eyestrain--and blueberry sales there have quadrupled in the last two years, says John Sauve, executive director of the Wild Blueberry Association of North America. That's due in part to research in Europe indicating that European blueberries (bilberries) can improve night vision and help eyes adjust to bright lights.

At Tufts, Dr. Prior plans to study the ability of this healthy food to prevent macular degeneration, a disease of the retina and the leading cause of blindness in people over age 65.

Blueberries are really the no-work fruit--they require no pitting, peeling, coring, or cutting. And they are an outrageously healthy food. Best of all, their taste is a treat. Go blue!

Blueberries are heavenly in muffins, pies, and other baked desserts. Or try these quick ideas for getting the antiaging power of blueberries every day: