Brainberries: Heralding a Major Health Message

Heard about the berry-brain connection?

Strong scientific evidence continues to reinforce the connection between berries and health. It’s led some to call these high-nutrition berries “brainberries”, the latest moniker for potent berries like blueberries and strawberries that, when integrated into a daily diet, may help preserve and protect the brain as we age. The latest brain-berry research is taking us further in our understanding of a devastating problem affecting an aging population.

Listen the Bar Harbor Group member
Barabra Shukitt-Hale at the
American Chemical Society.

Barbara Shukitt-Hale, Ph.D., of the USDA, Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University, recently shared her contribution to this research on a podcast at the American Chemical Society. Shukitt-Hale’s research focuses on the science behind the value of eating berry fruits, and her findings, which appear in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, suggest that eating berries has beneficial effects on the brain and may help prevent age-related memory loss and other changes such as Alzheimer’s disease.

Shukitt-Hale is a valued member of the Bar Harbor Group, a group of top scientists from the U.S. and Canada that meet in Bar Harbor, Maine each year to present research into the connection between a blueberry-rich diet and disease prevention. Members have been a force behind research into Azhiemer’s disease, diabetes, heart disease, vision health and metabolic syndrome. This past fall, Shukitt-Hale presented work at the Bar Harbor Summit concerning memory and motor function and their connection with blueberries.

On the podcast, Shukitt-Hale explains that the high antioxidant benefit is what acts on the part of the brain responsible for cognitive function. Berries contain high levels of antioxidants (with their dark phyto-rich skin, wild blueberries are leaders in antioxidants). She also points out that “…berry fruits change the way neurons in the brain communicate.”  These changes in signaling, she says, can prevent inflammation in the brain, the key to preventing neuron damage that specifically affects cognitive function. While ongoing research is required to fully understand this mechanism, we are closer than ever to a major health message that could help millions.

Brain Benefits Now & Later

Reducing Alzheimer’s disease can translate into reduced health care challenges for families, lowered costs of care, and improved quality of life for millions. Today, 5.4 million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s disease and it is the sixth leading cause of death. According to the Alzheimer’s Association, the direct costs of caring for those with Alzheimer’s or other dementias to American society will total an estimated $200 billion in 2012.

Should we change our behavior based on the research of Shukkit-Hale and the recent findings from the Nurses Health Study?

We should. If you are not eating berries in your daily diet, begin. Even if we have more to understand about the mechanism behind the berry benefits, increasing our fruit and veggie intake with a focus on berries is, according to the best experts in the field, the right move. Everyone can reap benefit from berries, and bumping up your intake is easy – there’s simply no downside, and the upside can be huge.

Short-term benefits: Berries, namely the antioxidant leader wild blueberries, are considered brain food because their cognitive benefits can keep our brains working whether we are having fun or we are hard at work. Berries’ immediate brain benefits are a result of being well-rounded: they are a low GI food as well as a low calorie, high-fiber food that keeps weight and blood sugar levels in check. They also provide essential brain nutrients that support mental clarity and enhance performance in the here and now.

Long-term benefits: The most compelling evidence that connects berries and diet suggests that we could prevent the onset of Alzheimer’s by eating more. Just a serving per day provides the benefit. Even for those who are not destined to have Alzheimer’s, the most recent research indicates that a diet that includes berries may still preserve brain function as we age by preventing memory loss and loss of motor function, and it could help decrease depression.

A Serving a Day: For Your Brain Health

In the case “brainberries” more is actually better. But according to researchers, just one serving a day of wild blueberries can translate into advantages to the brain – they are that powerful. Do you know what constitutes a serving?

Q: One serving of wild blueberries is equal to:

a: 12-oz bag of berries

b. 1 cup of berries

c. ½ cup of berries

Answer: c. While the definition of a serving depends on your age and gender, just ½ cup is considered a serving size for most people. Want to do something good for your brain? Just eat ½ cup of delicious, sweet, tangy wild blueberries today.

Interested in other benefits? Get the FAQs about Blues.

Blueberries May Preserve Brain Health: How A New Study Affects You

Blueberries have been honored with the “brain food” label for some time — even before we understood exactly what was meant by the term. For nutritionists, researchers, doctors, and even the layperson, it was clear that blueberries, especially the small, nutrient-dense wild blueberry, had an effect on brain clarity, brain performance, memory, and motor skills.

Through the years, researchers were able to understand more about why that moniker was so appropriate. They isolated components like antioxidants, and they began to gather data on which antioxidants affected brain function and brain aging. They discovered advantages for the heart, for cancer prevention, for inflammation, and for digestive and vision issues as well.

Research into brain health and blueberries is becoming well documented and better understood. Now, exciting new research reported last week provides additional evidence that a simple addition to the diet may help cognitive function and prevent the onset of Alzheimer’s disease.

New Research on Cognitive Health

The long-term study, conducted on humans by Harvard Researchers, is part of the Nurse’s Health Study. This study gathered data from 121,700 female, registered nurses between the ages of 30 and 55. They provided data beginning in 1976, and since 1980, reported on their food consumption and were tested for their cognitive function. The result of the study showed that those who ate more servings of blueberries and strawberries preserved their brain function to a greater degree than those who ate less.

The amounts consumed by nurses who were part of the study were completely manageable, topping out at around a serving or more per day, and the study showed the more intake the better. Those who consumed the most berries were able to delay cognitive aging by up to two and a half years. It will be no surprise to those who follow nutrition that some familiar compounds in these berries were at work: anthocyanidins (an anthocyanin counterpart) and flavonoids, which have powerful antioxidant properties, were found to be particularly effective in areas of intellectual performance, memory, and brain performance related to aging.

Brain Power & Blue

According to the study, smaller amounts of blueberries compared with strawberries were shown to make the difference in inhibiting cognitive decline. The study suggests, as reported in Huff Post Healthy Living, that eating one or more servings of blueberries or two or more servings of strawberries each week made the difference. These strikingly manageable amounts may be because of the concentrated nutrition, dark antioxidant-rich skin, and high skin-to-pulp ratio that is present in blueberries, especially wild blueberries.

Researchers allow that the study is not definitive – studies into the brain-berry connection is just beginning.  For example, we have yet to understand exactly how these influential antioxidants work, and have not yet isolated the component that acts on the brain. We don’t yet know if these components act in conjunction with other components, or even with other foods. So what makes this study so important, and what does it mean to us as consumers right now?

Why This Study is Important to You

1) It will help change our behavior. According to press, the berry-brain study is the first large, epidemiologic study of the berry, something heartening to researchers and nutritionists alike. Studies devoted to nutritional health are simply less exciting and less funded than those that promise new, non-food breakthroughs. Too bad: the knowledge we obtain as a result can have major implications. This study provides crucial new information that substantiates a less-than-sexy but ultimately powerfully nutritious food. While there has been previous research into the benefits of eating blueberries, and in particular the benefits to the brain, this new research helps to add to the evidence and may actually begin to shift our behavior.

2) The amounts are easy to achieve. This latest study was on humans living a normal life. Unlike well-known studies of mice consuming highly concentrated unmanageable amounts of nutritional components, this study indicates that just a few servings per week is all it might take to create a major health difference. According to the lead study author, Dr. Elizabeth Devore, a “simple dietary modification” was used to tests cognitive health, and it’s one accessible to all of us.

3) Improvement is significant and measurable. Results of the study indicate that those who consumed the most antioxidant-rich berries showed the most significant reduction in cognitive decline, with the largest delay being two and a half years. This sort of outcome is not just helpful for the individual; it could also add up to major gains for society at large.

4) It has implications for Alzheimer’s disease. Berry consumption could be one way to combat one of the more dire health issues facing an aging population. Alzheimer’s Association experts say that cognitive decline develops over many years and early signs of decline could indicate future dementia or Alzheimer’s onset. By consuming berries, you may be doing much more than just improving brain fog or senior moments – you may be protecting yourself against a destructive age-related disease.

5) You can begin today. To begin brain health preservation, there is no doctor’s appointment and no prescription necessary. Simply getting a serving of wild blueberries today can mark the beginning of your efforts to maintain brain health as you age. Visit your grocery store, make a stop at the freezer case, and buy them frozen, so getting a serving every day is easy. It could be one of the best things you’ll do for your health and your head.

Begin Today. Find our where to buy wild blueberries wherever you are.

Fruit & Veggie Slackers – Are You One?

We’ve said it here before. Most Americans are not eating their daily requirement of disease preventing, health boosting, weight managing fruits and veggies. A new report from the CDC this month says as much – only 33% of adults consumed two or more fruits a day, while just 26% consume three or more veggies.

More bad news? Who needs it. It used to be that avoiding being force-fed Brussels sprouts at dinner time was worth a little bad health. Better to live it up and enjoy life. But those days are over – enjoying nature’s bounty does mean living it up. First, it’s easier than ever – frozen fruits and veggies are always available and have just as much of the taste and nutrition as fresh. And, eating colorful foods from the rainbow means eating sweet, crunchy delicious foods that offer a bang to your brain and energize your body in the short term. In the long term, they offer powerful anti-aging nutrients, cancer prevention, and heart disease prevention. There’s simply no reason not to commit to getting your daily dose.

The wild blueberry lovers at Facebook got hip to the news and started fighting back by putting their own ways they defy the odds on the wall. Veggie smoothies, raw food munching, juices…how do you get your daily dose? Join the conversation (and pick up on some yummy recipes that make nutrition irresistible while you’re there). Or, if you’re feeling serving-impaired, put a few of these ideas to help you get fruits and vegetables into your diet on your own wall.

Stop undercutting your health. Longevity, wellness, and weight management is right there in your freezer, in your fridge, in your fruit bowl and on your plate. Don’t be a fruit and veggie slacker – dig in!

Can You Clean Your Brain? New Research Shows Berries Can Eliminate Brain “Debris”

It sounds as wonderful as it does impossible: that our brain can be cleaned, restored, and refreshed by eliminating harmful clutter. There’s some brand new research indicating that this clean sweep is no new age fantasy, and it may be achieved by what we eat.

The latest scientific research reveals that what is cluttering up the brain and leaving us susceptible to its diseases of aging such as Azhiemer’s and memory loss can be tidied up through berries – specifically blueberries, strawberries and acai berries, frozen or fresh. The concept marks a leap in a compelling area of science focused on maintaining the health of the brain. It also strengthens an already compelling link between diet and prevention.

The study was presented at the 240th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society, and it showed that berries (and possibly walnuts), activate the brain’s natural “housekeeper” mechanism, which cleans up and recycles toxic proteins linked to age-related memory loss and other mental decline.

If all this talk of garbage and recycling sounds more like working at a landfill than working on your health, here’s some new concepts to start thinking about:

Brain “Debris”

Previous research has suggested that one factor involved in aging is a steady decline in the body’s ability to protect itself against inflammation and oxidative damage. This damage results when normally protective cells become overactivated to the point that they damage healthy cells. This is, in a sense, the origin of brain debris, or the buildup of biochemical waste. This waste of the nervous system collects during aging, essentially gumming up the works. Without a little cleanup, this can prevent the brain from working the way it should.

Brain “Cleansing”

Now that we have the dirt, we need the broom. Enter cells called microglia. They are the housekeepers of the brain that in normal functioning collect, remove, and actually “recycle” the biochemical debris in a process called autophagy.

This process can be hindered as we get older, and without this “sweeping” process, we are left with the buildup. As a result of this slowing of the natural protective process, we are left vulnerable to degenerative brain diseases, heart disease, cancer, and other age-related disorders.

Restoring a Cluttered Brain

We know that natural compounds called polyphenolics found in fruits and vegetables have an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effect that may protect against age-associated decline. Shibu Poulose, Ph.D. and James Joseph, Ph.D., (Joseph passed away in June; you can read our rememberance of Jim Joseph here) did the latest research that takes these details and ties them directly to the berries in question.

The research by Poulose and Joseph suggests that the berries’ polyphonolics are responsible for what they call a “rescuing effect”.  They restore the housekeeping action – the normal function of sweeping away debris – that hinders the function of the brain.

 
A Growing Area of Study

While we are already aware of the disease preventing effects of polyphenols, this “rescuing” process has been previously unrecognized by researchers. It furthers the science behind an important link between diet and maintaining healthy brain aging.

Keeping diseases of the brain at bay seems to be more and more within reach by accessing the great foods that surround us. As research into the astonishing benefits of berries continues, researchers continue to provide compelling data about their disease preventing power  – and that means hope for all of our aging, cluttered brains.

Scarecrow’s Lament: Can We Really Preserve Brain Function?

When Health Magazine announced its America’s Healthiest Superfoods for Women, it cited research that indicates wild blueberries may help prevent memory loss and improve motor skills. Part of living a long, healthy life is keeping the brain in top condition – can this tiny fruit really preserve brain function? 
In making this claim, Health Magazine is referring to an essential brain study done by James A. Joseph, PhD, and his team at the USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging in Boston. Dr. Joseph is co-author of The Color Code , a book that explores the beneficial effects of richly-hued, colorful foods, and is lead researcher at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging. Joseph and his team reported that a diet of blueberries may indeed improve motor skills and reverse the short-term memory loss that comes with aging such as Alzheimer’s.
The Brain-Diet Connection
Dr. Joseph’s research revealed that in USDA animal trials, improved navigational skills were evident after a two-month diet of blueberry extract. Although other fruits and vegetables were studied, only blueberries were effective in improving motor skills. In layman’s terms, rats with neuronal lesions that were fed supplemented diets made their way to their cube of cheddar better and faster. This boon to the brain was groundbreaking: the connection between motor skills and nutrition, specifically the nutrition offered by blueberries, was documented. The data also showed an improvement in short term memory loss as a result of the supplemented diet. Joseph and his team had found that it may be possible to overcome genetic predispositions to Alzheimer’s disease through diet.
Inflammation & the Brain
Not only did rats perform better in cognitive tests when fed a blueberry-supplemented diet, but the concentration of several substances in the brain that can trigger an inflammatory response was significantly reduced. The chemical structure of blueberries appeared to inhibit inflammation, and had “attenuated learning impairments” according to the report published in Nutritional Neuroscience. In a stunning “reversal” of the aging process, their brain tissue experienced a kind of regeneration.
Joseph’s study has contributed to wild blueberries’ status as a “brain food”. They appear prominently on lists of top brain foods, and they stand proudly beside other foods (like omega 3-rich wild salmon and walnuts) that pack a punch for preserving brain health.
The Bottom Line
Healthy aging depends on preserving our cognitive ability. While all of us want to live a long, disease-free life, our longevity is only valuable if our brain is functioning well. The bottom line is: keep your head, and eat your brain food. A half of a cup of wild blueberries per day (check for “wild” for the most concentrated nutritional benefit) should help keep you thinking healthy thoughts.