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Posts Tagged ‘antioxidant’

Great!! blueberry contains 14 mg or almost 25% of daily requirement for Vitamin C. Vitamin C is needed for the formation of collagen and to maintain healthy gums and capillaries. It also aids in the absorption of iron and promotes a healthy immune system.

The US Department of Agriculture has recently revealed that wild blueberries actually provide more natural antioxidants than any other fruit, including their cultivated relatives (although cultivated blueberries are number two on the list). They have more than three times the antioxidant agent that apples do and are less than a tenth of the size individually! This simply serves to highlight how beneficial blueberries are to our health, especially when we examine exactly what antioxidants do within our bodies.

Blueberries contain substances that have antioxidant properties.Antioxidants help neutralize free radicals which are unstable molecules linked to the development of a number of diseases including cancer, cardiovascular disease and other age-related conditions such as Alzheimer’s. According to the USDA database of the antioxidant activity of selected foods (ORAC values), blueberries rank among the highest on a per serving basis. The antioxidant capacity of blueberries is 6,552 micromoles TE/100g. Substances in blueberries called polyphenols, specifically anthocyanins that give blueberries their blue hue, are the major contributors to the antioxidant activity of blueberries.

The antioxidants found in blueberries actively fight free radicals, the substances that are produced within the body in increasing amounts as we get older and cause irrevocable cell damage as well as affecting our DNA. Both of these side effects of the free radicals may enable diseases such as cancer to occur and spread more easily. However, as the blueberries’ antioxidants neutralize the free radicals within the body, they actually promote health and may go some way to helping our immune system to prevent and fight off such threats.

The antioxidants that blueberries contain have a wide range of other benefits, such as prevention of urinary tract infections and overall memory improvement, but they are not limited to the health properties that the antioxidants promote. 140 grams of blueberries actually only contains 1 gram of fat, and all of it is healthy fat that is used by the body to maintain healthy tissue rather than the saturated fat that the body cannot use.

The blueberry is completely healthy as far as nutritional content is concerned. They contain no salt (listed as sodium on nutritional content tables) nor cholesterol, both of which have well documented adverse affects on the collective health of the nation these days and can serious put our individual health in jeopardy. The 140-gram portion of blueberries also contains 2% of our recommended daily iron intake as well as 15% of the Vitamin C daily recommendation.

The overall health benefits of the blueberry make it one of the most invaluable tools in our personal arsenal in the war against disease. In fact, in terms of long term benefits, blueberries are by far the best fruit, and even food in general, to consume and make an integral part of your diet. After all, can we really afford not to make the most of one of nature’s tastiest and most healthy gifts?