Search Here

Blueberries have often been touted as being one of the best fruits to eat due to the fact that they are packed with antioxidants. Even though there is already mounting evidence that blueberries are healthy and good for the body, researchers continue to study this power packed fruit. In a new study, research by a clinical nutritionist at the University of Maine reported that eating blueberries everyday could help reduce health issues, such as inflammation and cholesterol while promoting the body's metabolism of fat.

For this study, professor Dorothy Klimis-Zacas looked at the effects of eating blueberries in rat models. She used obese Zucker rats that resembled humans that were high-risk for coronary heart disease and type 2 diabetes. The Zucker rat is considered a legitimate model to use in experiments aimed to study the human metabolic syndrome (MetS). MetS is associated to chronic inflammation, obesity, hypertension, glucose intolerance and insulin resistance.

Klimis-Zacas found that eating blueberries could help lower low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol. This type of cholesterol has been tied to clogging arteries and increasing risk of a heart attack. She noted that blueberries were able to help maintain high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol at healthy levels. Klimis-Zacas also discovered that blueberries were able to ease chronic inflammation. According to the study, people will need to consume two cups of wild blueberries each day for two months for these health benefits to start to kick in.

Klimis-Zacas explains her study in two detailed research articles titled "Wild blueberry (Vaccinium angustifolium) consumption improves inflammatory status in the obese Zucker rat model of the metabolic syndrome" published in SciVerse ScienceDirect, a Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry and "Wild blueberry (Vaccinium angustifolium)-enriched diet improves dyslipidaemia and modulates the expression of genes related to lipid metabolism in obese Zucker rats" published in the British Journal of Nutrition.