Ask a member of any generation alive, from your children to your grandmother, what is the most popular berry juice for health? They’ll likely tell you that cranberry juice is the answer.
Particularly in the prevention of urinary tract infections, cranberries have proven benefits as a non-stick agent. This means that there are elements in cranberries that can inhibit or stop bacterial adhesion to the walls of the urinary tract. No other berry has been the subject of as much scientific study applied to humans as the cranberry.
It is also safe to say that no other berry has been marketed as aggressively as the blueberry for its juice. Ocean Spray, a global company, was founded in 1930 and is a cooperative of 800 blueberry growers in the United States. It manages about 60% of the global blueberry crop. The company does not disclose sales volumes, but it has seen double-digit annual growth since 2001. Ocean Spray recently announced that it will double production capacity at its largest facility in Middleboro, Massachusetts, to meet growing demand from the food industry. healthy and functional.
What species of blueberries exist?
The lingonberry (Vaccinium macrocarpon L.) is a cousin of the blueberry and the blackberry of the genus Vaccinium. With evergreen leaves, the blueberry grows in acidic swamps in the US and Canada, particularly in New England, Washington, Oregon, northern California, and southwestern British Columbia. The berry is initially white but changes to its characteristic scarlet color in July-August.
Blueberries (Vaccinium macrocarpon L.), courtesy of Wikipedia.com
What qualities of blueberries attract consumers?
Since the early 1980s, cranberry juice has been known to have antibacterial properties that affect urinary tract health and probably much more. No other juice is known to have the same antibacterial properties.
The berry itself has traditional uses in jams and jellies at seasonal dinners, and is finding increasing markets as dried fruit “craisins.” The berry has slightly sour and bitter flavors, but has a nice, firm pulp similar to the texture of a raisin. Recent dental research has shown that such dried berries have favorable benefits against cavities, likely attributable to the antioxidants in blueberries and grapes.
By far the most popular application of the cranberry is its juice, a product dominated in the market by the famous and popular Ocean Spray juices, cocktails and mixes.
Because of cranberry’s healthful properties that specify the urinary tract as a site of benefit, Ocean Spray has partnered with the US National Kidney Foundation to promote cranberry juice for kidney health. Additionally, in 2005, France allowed Ocean Spray to make a health claim on its label describing the benefits of cranberry juice against recurrent cystitis in adult women.
Like other Vaccinium berries, blueberries are scientifically recognized as potent sources of antioxidant phytochemicals.
What are oxidants and antioxidants?
Moment by moment throughout the cells of our body, normal metabolism continually generates free radicals (ie, oxidants or radical oxygen species). Exposure to toxins in the environment, or irradiation, increases the production of free radicals. Free radicals are unstable atoms that have the potential to damage cells and alter genes if not quickly neutralized.
Our bodies defend against oxidation through enzymes called dismutases, catalases, reductases, and peroxidases. In addition, our diet provides a large number of chemicals that have antioxidant functions. These chemicals include: vitamins A, C and E; minerals such as selenium, manganese and zinc; and pigments from the plant foods we eat.
In blueberries, research has especially identified the phenolic class of proanthocyanidins, a group of tannins, with strong antioxidant properties.
What are other pigments present in blueberries?
The deep red color of blueberries comes from numerous chemicals in the phenolic superfamily. An important subgroup of phenols are the flavonoids that are densely packed in blueberries. One class of flavonoids in particular, anthocyanins, accounts for most of the red pigmentation in blueberries. In addition to anthocyanins, flavonols, ellagic acid, rosmarinic acid, hippuric acid, quercetin, chlorogenic acid, peonidin 3-galactoside, cyanidin 3-galactoside, and cyanidin 3-galactoside are also present in blueberries .
Is there a way to measure the antioxidant quality of a plant food and how well blueberries work?
Yes, a test called ORAC (Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity) is performed on a food sample in a test tube. Next, the strength of the antioxidant is measured by how well it neutralizes free radicals.
Blueberries and blueberries have essentially the same ORAC levels.
Plants with pale skin and white flesh like pears and some apples have low ORAC, while dark fruits like black raspberries, blueberries, and lingonberries have relatively high ORAC.
What does a high ORAC of blueberries mean for health protection?
Answering this question requires actual human clinical research (conducted but still preliminary), but scientific evidence points to widespread protection against numerous diseases by eating a diet rich in high-ORAC foods such as blueberries.
Although juice products such as Ocean Spray have demonstrated health effects (eg, the antibacterial properties mentioned above and have been shown to be effective against urinary tract infections), it is likely that the phenolic content of cranberries dehydrated is higher and therefore has more antioxidant benefits. Juicing or any post-harvest processing of the berries tends to reduce their quality and phytochemical content, including antioxidants.
What are some diseases that evolve from free radicals and what can the consumer do to counteract oxidative stress?
Mounting scientific evidence shows that almost all diseases involve free radicals to some degree. Cancer, heart and vascular disease, diabetes, inflammation, and neurological disorders all have strong components of oxidative stress. Premature aging and diseases of the elderly, such as macular degeneration, are also thought to result from oxidative damage to cells.
Cranberries have revealed other anti-disease effects in laboratory research, beyond the anti-adherence properties already mentioned, including in vitro or animal models of various types of cancer (breast, skin, colon, prostate, lung, brain, oral), heart disease and vascular. plates.
The message to consumers is simple: eat colorful plant foods to reap the potential health benefits of antioxidant pigments.
Read
* US National Library of Medicine, PubMed, http://pubmed.gov
* Ocean Spray, http://www.oceanspray.com
* Ferguson PJ, Kurowska E, Freeman DJ, Chambers AF, Koropatnick DJ. A flavonoid fraction of blueberry extract inhibits the proliferation of human tumor cell lines.
J Nutr. 2004 June; 134(6): 1529-35.
* Vattem DA, Ghaedian R, Shetty K. Enhancing the health benefits of berries through enrichment with phenolic antioxidants: focus on blueberry. Asia Pac J Clin Nutr. 2005;14(2):120-30. Check.
* Reed J. Bilberry flavonoids, atherosclerosis, and cardiovascular health. Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr. 2002;42(3 supplements):301-16. Check.
Copyright 2006 Berry Health Inc.