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Blueberries are nature's wonder food

    Blueberries have always seemed about as perfect a fruit as nature ever made.

    They don't have thorns that stab your fingers, and you don't have to crawl around to pick them.

    They don't have awkward pits or annoying seeds... they don't need peeling, quartering, slicing, or dicing. And when you eat them in a bowl of milk,
they bob around obligingly so you can chase down every last one.

    Besides, who can resist their good looks? Those dusky midnight colors and round shapes make them look like fat blue moons. You can pop 'em in your mouth like candy and never regret it when you step on the scale.

    But it's blueberries' hidden charms that have been making big, big news over the last year. Inside that chubby blue exterior lurks perhaps the most concentrated source of antioxidants in all of fruit- and vegetable-dom. 

    Antioxidants slow the aging process and retard the development of diseases, including cancer, by mopping up compounds in the body called free radicals.

    Scientists at the USDA's Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University in Boston tested 40 common fruits and vegetables - including broccoli, spinach and oranges - to determine their antioxidant levels. Blueberries came out No. 1.

   Dr. Ronald Prior, head of the USDA's phytochemical research at Tufts, says one serving of blueberries - a half-cup - contains as much antioxidant power as five servings of some fruits and vegetables.

    Eating a half-cup of blueberries daily will almost double the amount of antioxidants most Americans get every day, he says in the June issue of Prevention magazine in an article titled "The Miracle Berry." that single serving has as many antioxidants as 2 1/4 cups of broccoli.

    Other Taft researchers fed blueberry extract to older rats for two months and found that it improved their short-term memory, as measured by their ability to navigate a maze that they had  learned but then forgotten. More research is being done to find out what substances are responsible for the change, Prevention says.

    At the University of California at Davis, researchers believe that antioxidants in blueberries are responsible for reducing levels of LDL, the bad cholesterol, in the blood. And at Rutgers University research shows that blueberries promote urinary tract health in much the same way that cranberries do.

    It's prime blueberry season in Michigan, which by the way is the nation's leading producer of this wonder food. If you want  to support farmers, improve your health and enjoy the fruits of summer, head to your  nearest farm market and buy a quart.

   Or buy a gallon, freeze them loose on cookie sheets and transfer them to plastic cartons or freezer bags to use all year long. You can also try them in the delicious  blueberry recipes on Page **.

   Grocery stores have Michigan blueberries, too, so there's really no excuse not to take some home. We might have fallen in love with their good looks, but for once, beauty is more than skin deep.

(article from unknown source)

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USDA Nutritional Information on Blueberries

Blueberries, raw

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