What’s So Great About Good Health

The Brain-Nutrition Connection & the Real Payoff of Being Healthy

We log time on the treadmill. We scrutinize our plates for nutrition. We watch our portions and increase our fruit and vegetable servings.

Why do we do it?

We want to be healthy. But what is good health? And why can “healthy” sometimes seem like it has a PR problem?

Here’s the “problem” with healthy:

  • You can’t show it off like a purse or a haircut.
  • Unlike a weight loss effort or 5K race, it’s constant, dynamic, and never-ending.
  • You can’t plan a party to celebrate the results – health benefits often occur 10, 20, even 50 years down the line.

So what’s to like about health? Where’s the flash? Where’s the sizzle?

Why Healthy Sizzles 

First, health does have some immediate benefits to relish. While it may take decades to see some of the effects of disease prevention, health has advantages in the present as well. It may not be as noticeable as a Gucci purse, but good nutrition is something you can wear – you can see it on your face, in the brightness of your skin and the glow in your eyes, and in the clothes that fit you better. If you are healthy, you can achieve more because you feel better and stronger inside and out, and that’s pretty flashy.

But here’s the real sizzle: health contributes to living a better life. Superfood orginator Dr. Steve Pratt explains health and longevity this way:

“Brain heart, eyes—they all go together. Rarely do you see a brain that’s top notch and poor eyesight. It’s good for the eyes, it’s good for the brain and if it’s good for the brain it’s good for the heart.”

Being healthy means being healthy all over. We don’t want to age without it—getting older is not what it’s cracked up to be if we can’t see, we can’t move, and we can’t remember.

Your Brain IS Your Health

For today’s growing population of baby boomers, cognitive health and health is one and the same. Alzheimer’s disease and cognitive decline is a grave concern as our longevity potential grows. Without affordable genetic testing, most of us simply don’t know to what degree we are predisposed to diseases of the brain.

All we know is that having our health tomorrow means making efforts to prevent brain disease, among other diseases of aging, today. And if you think about it, the idea that prevention could be possible is as exciting as a purse, a 5K, or the biggest celebration. When you believe that, you’ve got your own definition of good health, and that’s the most important step toward achieving it.

Healthy Today & Tomorrow 

According to Susan Davis, MS, RD, nutrition advisor to the Wild Blueberry Association of North America, “New research is really bearing out the idea that a diet rich in wild blueberries may help prevent cognitive decline.” AARP The Magazine named wild blueberries to its list of the most powerful disease-fighting foods. The research into wild blueberries and their positive effect on the brain in mounting. Areas of recent study include their potential for improving memory loss, Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of cognitive impairment.

Notably, recent research shows wild blueberry supplemented diets could improve memory function and mood in older adults with early memory decline. The effect of a short-term blueberry-enriched diet on aged lab animals suggests that they may prevent and reverse a considerable degree of age-related object memory decline. And, in another study, researchers have found that the deeply colored berries enable “housekeeper” cells in the brain to remove biochemical debris, which is believed to contribute to the decline of mental functioning with age. It’s the natural pigments called anthocyanins that give the berries their deep-blue color as well as their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory power. They score twice as high in antioxidant capacity per serving as cultivated blueberries, making them the go-to berry for brain protection.

The bottom line is that something in a large blue bag in your freezer can be your definition of health. The intense benefit of wild blueberries is the best way we can think of to illustrate the potential of nutritional prevention. A small act of eating daily servings have the attention of nutritionists, scientists and consumers alike, especially those of retirement age and beyond. So put a little sizzle in your life (you’ll know it’s there). But do it today. And every day of your long, healthy life.

Read More: See the press release Wild Blueberries – Brain Food for Boomers? in MaineToday.


Can something delicious and readily available help protect you from cognitive decline? Babble attempts to answer with their post Blueberry Brain Boosters and enters their recipe for Fresh Blueberry Morning Bread, which is anything but medicinal, as evidence.

New Video! Exciting Study Ties Blueberries to Breast Cancer Prevention

There is no more exciting time in the world of blueberry research. The nutritional potential of blueberries, particularly wild blueberries, is high and building as we find out more and more about the natural disease preventing chemicals sheathed by that dark blue skin.

Now, a new study conducted by researchers at the City of Hope in Los Angeles provides an encouraging connection between the nutritional benefits of this powerhouse fruit to breast cancer prevention, isolating a specific link to a very aggressive form of the disease.

Watch Blueberries: A Triple Threat Against Triple-Negative Breast Cancers from the City of Hope and hear firsthand what the researchers have to say about this important study.

The study builds upon an infrastructure of previous research into the effect of phytochemicals, naturally occurring substances that are highly concentrated in blueberries and are present in other fruits and vegetables. Phytochemicals neutralize free radicals and help prevent cell damage, which prevents diseases of aging and types of cancer.

This promising study reports on the effect of blueberries on a type of breast cancer referred to as triple-negative. Triple-negative breast cancer is difficult to treat and has a high mortality rate compared to other types of breast cancers.

The study was conducted by researchers Shiuan Chen, Ph.D., and Lynn Adams, Ph.D and will be published in the October 2011 issue of The Journal Of Nutrition. In terms of the connection between triple-negative breast cancer and the effect of blueberries, the report includes the following outcomes:

  • inhibited proliferation of triple negative cells
  • increased death rate of bad cells
  • inhibited metastatic potential, or migration of cells
  • inhibited tumor growth

The details of the results of the study can be found at The Lempert Report.

We know that blueberries contain phytochemicals, and according to co-researcher Dr. Shiuan Chen, we already have the evidence that blueberries can help to suppress the proliferation and migration of cancer cells. Still outstanding is actually defining what the active chemicals are that act on these cancer cells. But the results of this initial study remain very exciting. Because the study was conducted with blueberry powder fed to mice, it must, of course, be replicated in humans, but one encouraging factor was the achievable amount of blueberry intake involved. It is common to hear of studies involving amounts of food that would be impossible to consume. Here, the dose required to achieve results was equivalent to two cups of fresh blueberries per day, something reasonable for consumption by humans.

Breast cancer affects 1 in 8 women during their lives. Anticipating more definitive research into this important cancer, particularly into this very aggressive form, is very exciting. There are few effective drugs for triple-negative breast cancer, and lowering mortality rates would have an enormous impact on the population with the disease and for those who are at risk. But there’s no need to wait to start a disease-fighting regimen: there is overwhelming agreement in the scientific community that efforts to lower the risk of breast cancer involve eating blueberries and a variety of fruits and vegetables, according to co-researcher Dr. Lynn Adams. To get variety in your diet, use the rainbow as your guide. The different colors of fruits and vegetables provide diverse forms of phytochemicals, which appear to act in synergy with one another to prevent disease. Blueberries, specifically wild blueberries, which have a higher ORAC score than cultivated blueberries, are the best way to integrate the blue-purple color of the spectrum.

The fact that foods which could provide anti-cancer benefits are readily available is a valuable message for consumers. We are lucky that this convenient, delicious fruit is available frozen in grocery stores all year, providing all the nutrition of fresh. Start getting your two cups per day. You’ll be doing something good for your body and making strides toward disease prevention.

A lot is happening in the world of nutrition research! Find out more about the exciting new research into the health advantages of wild blueberries, and read the latest news about how blueberries can reduce the risk of metabolic syndrome.