Mercola - Natural Health Products & Articles

If you could only choose one kind of fruit to eat, what would it be?

For Dr. Mercola, the answer would be berries, some of the smallest and healthiest fruits known to man. Berries were fortunate enough to have been spared from hybridization, which would have transformed them into giant packages of sugar.

Berries are delicious, low calorie, high in fiber, low in sugar and densely packed with nutrients. Among the types of berries, blueberries have the qualities becoming of a true superfruit.

Compared to 40 other fresh fruits and vegetables, blueberries were ranked #1 in antioxidant activity by the USDA Nutrition Center. Antioxidants help protect your body from the damaging effects of free radicals and the aging process.

Blueberries: Proof that Big Health Benefits Can Come from Small Packages

The blueberry’s dye is the most important part of the fruit because it contains the phytochemical anthocyanin, which has been shown to help slow down the growth of colon cancer cells. Other studies suggest that anthocyanin may help to:

• fight infection and boost the immune system
• reduce the risk of heart disease, stroke and atherosclerosis by inhibiting cholesterol and slowing down cholesterol buildup
• guard against Alzheimer’s disease and other neurological conditions
• protect the integrity of the veins and the entire vascular system
• enhance mental function by blocking cholesterol from entering the brain’s blood vessels
• improve vision and protect against macular degeneration

Aside from anthocyanins, blueberries also pack other nutrients, including proanthocyanidins, which help promote urinary tract health, vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium, iron, magnesium, potassium and zinc.

But eating a blueberry cheesecake or ice cream won’t give you the maximum health benefits of this superfruit. As with all fruits and vegetables, Mercola highly recommends wild, organic blueberries.

Vital Choice Wild Organic Blueberries are harvested from eastern Canada and are smaller but sweeter than the common blueberries you can find at the supermarket. They’re shipped frozen so you can savor the same delectable flavor from the day they were picked, but more importantly, to preserve the complex antioxidant molecules.

Whether you juice them, use them as an ingredient for your recipes or simply eat them as dessert or a snack, one thing’s for sure: blueberries are “berry” good for your health!

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