Pick Berries to
Protect Your Aging Brain
Those berries adorning
your breakfast cereal or topping your yogurt may be doing more than merely
adding fruity flavor to your day. A “bunch” of new research suggests thatblueberries, strawberries, grapes and other berry fruits could help protect
your brain from decline with aging.
In a review of the
scientific evidence published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food
Chemistry, Marshall G. Miller and Barbara Shukitt-Hale, PhD, of Tufts’
USDA-HNRCA Neuroscience and Aging Laboratory note, “A growing body of
preclinical and clinical research has identified neurological benefits
associated with the consumption of berry fruits. In addition to their now
well-known antioxidant effects, dietary supplementation with berry fruits also
has direct effects on the brain. Intake of these fruits may help to prevent
age-related neurodegeneration and resulting changes in cognitive and motor
function.”
Some of the latest
research, the Tufts scientists point out, focuses on beneficial effects of
berry fruits on the ways that neurons in the brain communicate. By boosting the
brain’s signaling functions, berries may prevent damaging inflammation in the
brain and protect cognition and motor control.
At least some of
berries’ brain-protective power appears to derive from antioxidant flavonoid
compounds called anthocyanins, which give the fruits their vivid red, purple
and blue colors. These anthocyanins are found in berry fruits including blueberries,
strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, bilberries, huckleberries and
cranberries, as well as grapes and currants.
The case for berries’
brain benefits was also recently bolstered by a study the authors call the
largest and longest of its kind. Elizabeth Devore, ScD, of Brigham and Women’s
Hospital, and colleagues analyzed data on berry consumption among 16,010 women
age 70 and older participating in the Nurses’ Health Study. The women completed
dietary questionnaires every four years beginning in 1980, prior to cognitive
testing; they were tested for memory and other cognitive function every two
years between 1995 and 2001.
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Berries Could Battle Inflammation,
Atherosclerosis
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Berries may also be
good for your blood vessels, according to laboratory tests in Finland.
Researchers fed lingonberry, cranberry and blackcurrant juice to rats specially
bred to develop high blood pressure. All three juices were associated with
reductions in compounds linked to inflammation. Lingonberry juice was also
linked to significant improvements in biomarkers associated with damage to
cells thought to contribute to atherosclerosis. The positive effects can’t be
linked to a single phenolic compound in the juices, scientists noted, although
several such antioxidant www.antiagingwoners.com compounds have been shown to have anti-inflammatory
benefits. Overall, researchers concluded that “lingonberry juice appears to be
the most effective of the tested juices.”
TO LEARN MORE: Journal of Functional Foods, April 2012; abstract
atdx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jff.2012.02.010. Publishing their findings in Annals of Neurology,
Devore and colleagues found that women who consumed two or more half-cup
servings of strawberries or one or more half-cups of blueberries per week saw
slower mental decline—equivalent to up to two and a half years of delayed
cognitive aging. Intakes of anthocyanins and total flavonoids were also associated
with slower cognitive aging.
