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Are organic blueberries better for you?

A collaborative project between the US Department of Agriculture and Rutgers University attempted to determine the nutritional difference between organic and conventional blueberries.
By Yun Xie | Last updated July 7, 2008 6:59 AM CT

Blueberries, one of my favorite fruits, have a wonderful combination of tastiness and nutritional benefits. They are low in calories and have high antioxidant content, enabling them to scavenge radicals that might otherwise damage the body. Blueberries in general have health benefits, but are organic blueberries even better than conventionally grown ones? A collaborative project between the US Department of Agriculture and Rutgers University attempted to answer that question, and the results came in the form of a recent publication in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry...

click here to read the full article:
http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2008/07/are-organic-blueberries-better-for-you.ars

Blueberries for Health- Website

Blueberries for Health I just found this great compilation of all of the research on the health effects of Blueberries, compiled by the blueberry council. http://www.blueberry.org/health.htm. I'll be excerpting more of their findings. Among the studies: Blueberries and Antioxidant Activity Blueberries and Aging Blueberries and Health So if you're into reading the literature, and getting into the messy details, enjoy. Me, I'm just going to relax right now with a fresh blueberry smoothie.

Can Foods Forestall Aging? USDA Says YES!

And Blueberries rank at the top of the list!

Studies at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University in Boston suggest that consuming fruits and vegetables with a high-ORAC value may help slow the aging process in both body and brain. ORAC--short for Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity--measures the ability of foods, blood plasma, and just about any substance to subdue oxygen free radicals in the test tube.

Early evidence indicates that this antioxidant activity translates to animals, protecting cells and their components from oxidative damage. Getting plenty of the foods with a high-ORAC activity, such as spinach, strawberries, and blueberries, has so far:

  • raised the antioxidant power of human blood,
  • prevented some loss of long-term memory and learning ability in middle-aged rats,
  • maintained the ability of brain cells in middle-aged rats to respond to a chemical stimulus, and
  • protected rats' tiny blood vessels—capillaries—against oxygen damage.
These results have prompted Ronald L. Prior to suggest that "the ORAC measure may help define the dietary conditions needed to prevent tissue damage. To read the whole story:

http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/feb99/aging0299.htm