Posted on 04/02/2023 7:08:48 PM PDT by ConservativeMind
New research has found that eating a handful of wild blueberries daily has health benefits, including lowered blood pressure, faster reaction time, and improved memory and brain cognition.
The study involved a randomized, double blind, placebo-controlled trial of 61 healthy men and women aged 65 to 80, who drank a beverage made with 26 grams of freeze-dried wild blueberry powder (equivalent to about 178 grams of whole berries).
Over twelve weeks, researchers found that volunteers who consumed the berry powder in drinks experienced better memory and an improved accuracy on attention tasks, as well as lower blood pressure. Also during this period, after consuming berries the blood pressure of the test group was lower when compared to the placebo group, in addition to having an increased flow mediated dilation (FMD), which leads to a lower risk of cardiovascular disease.
Dr. Ana Rodriguez-Mateos said, "This study is the first of its kind and the results suggest that a daily intake of wild blueberries could help lower people's risk of cardiovascular disease by lowering their blood pressure and improving blood vessel function.
"We think the blue pigments in blueberries, the anthocyanins, which are a type of polyphenols also present in other foods such as strawberries, raspberries, red grapes and purple vegetables, are behind these effects as increases in their metabolites were seen in the urine of the volunteers after 12 weeks consumption."
Professor Claire Williams said, "It's clear from this study that consuming wild blueberries is beneficial to cognitive function, as well as vascular health. The group who had the wild blueberry powder showed signs of better memory and greater mental flexibility when completing cognitive tasks. This is consistent with what we already know about the health benefits of anthocyanin-rich foods. It points to an important role of polyphenols in healthy aging."
(Excerpt) Read more at medicalxpress.com ...
OK, I am truly confused here, since where I am, a wild blueberry is NOT farmed. The bushes grow to be 4-8” tall and cannot be mechanically harvested since the bushes literally hug the ground and will be destroyed by anything other than browsing style picking.
The berries themselves are a MAXIMUM 1/4” diameter.
Honestly, I think what is labelled “wild” and actual wild blueberries are completely different things.
YMMV, IMHO
Wymans
https://www.wymans.com/products/wild-blueberries
Walmart
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Great-Value-Frozen-Wild-Blueberries-40-oz/700604894
I don't think you understand these are mechanically processable.
I harvest dandelion on my property make tea with it every morn adding 1/4 tsp of Hawthorne Berry powder (good for lowering BP).
Then eat yoghurt with blueberries, then coffee. Every day. Hope it works...lol
“”The study was funded by the Wild Blueberry Association of North America.””
Tell us what you want us to find in this study...”
LOL!
You can’t take anything at face value anymore. (maybe you never could)
It’s gaslighting 24/7 from every side.
If this is correct, it comes out at about one ounce (one oz = 28 grams).
save for later
Mulch with sawdust - not wood chips - but sawdust, if you have a sawmill nearby. They love acid fertilizer and will produce like crazy.
I gather the smaller wild ones from around here and freeze them. They’re good with cottage cheese, and even better in pies. (the big commercial berries are no bueno for a quality pie).
Farm vs wid is a good question.
Wild salmon is a lot more beneficial than farm raised salmon. But that apparently is due to the much greater activity and exercise wild salmon get.
About the funding, do you all expect the government to pay for these random studies from tax dollars? Or, perhaps even more strangely, pharmaceutical companies?
No one seems to mind that pharmaceutical companies pay for tests for getting their products to market that everyone uses.
You can't find enough individuals to pony up money for independent research. Even if they did, it'd be research they wanted to see outcomes for, which, again, leaves doubt.
It's expensive enough to just test food products for lead content, such that organizations like Consumer Union (Consumer Reports) and ConsumerLab do it on just a dozen or two brands of one product.
What qualifies as a wild blueberry?
—
The ones you pick your self. If you live in the Pacific Northwest, then pick blue or red huckleberries which are blueberries and grow wild everywhere. The difference? One has 5 seeds and the other has 7.
It’s hard to believe that there are very many ‘wild’ blueberries. The season is short, and the berries are few. I’ve picked them in the summer in Northern Minnesota. A quart would be a very good day, and that’s after getting eaten alive by mosquitoes and deer flies. The berries are tiny compared with the farm grown ones. They must be picked one at a time since the ones on the plants don’t mature all at the same time. Some are still green after some others are over-ripe.
Yes, short season, different ripening times, often difficult terrain. On the plus side, there are no thorns!
The huckleberry is a kin of the blueberry that grows in western Montana, Northern Idaho, and Northeastern Washington. The big problem is the huckleberry is a favorite of bears, but that doesn’t deter people. They still go out during that short season. If you aren’t inclined to battle bears for the berries, you can buy them at farmer’s markets. The price reflects the labor cost of picking them, the fuel to get to the berry grounds, and the time required to hike to the berry patches. The cost probably includes the picker’s heavy sidearm and ammo, too.
When I was a kid, I picked wild blue berries in Germany. My dad was stationed there at the time.
The trick was to find big clumps of blueberries and pull out whole hand fulls of them at once. My memory is that it didn’t take that long to fill a bucket.
Could be too that I enjoyed it so much that time passed quickly
Agree blueberries act like baby prunes for me.
Bump
Apple is not so sweet.
What should NEXT happen, is The Federated Loganberry Institute does their own study, finding that loganberry powder cures eczema.
and on and on.
One day, and independent (maybe an academic, maybe a not for profit Institute or Consumer Reports) tries to replicate the study. They publish their results.
And so it goes. Assiduous inquiry wins the day.
OR....the FDA bans berry sales and tells everyone to take Pfizer Multi vitamins.
Thanks.
bkmk
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