Blueberries: The Health Benefits Of A Superfruit

Oranges have a reputation for containing a lot of vitamin C. Bananas are known for their potassium. You might have heard about the many health benefits of blueberries, too. In fact, many nutritionists consider the blueberry to be a superfruit.

I have to admit, blueberries are like an obsession for me and my family. We eat them by the truckload. I took my family blueberry picking over two recent Sundays. We came away with 7 pounds of blueberries each time. I thought that was insane…until my kids devoured each batch within four days! However, despite eating them regularly, both fresh and frozen, I never delved into the culinary and nutritional reasons why they are so amazing.

What Is So Wonderful About Blueberries?

Blueberries are most strongly associated with North America. In fact, there are more species native to this continent than any other continent. And the United States produces almost 84% of the blueberries cultivated worldwide. However, they weren’t widely cultivated until 1916. And it was only within the past 25 years that they took the world by storm, through a combination of great marketing and tons of scientific research. Nowadays, thanks to both, blueberries are considered a highly-regarded superfruit.

Nutritional Value

Nutritionally, blueberries are a very good source of vitamin C, vitamin K and manganese. They also contain copious amounts of fiber. But those only tell part of the story. Blueberries contain high levels of antioxidant polyphenols, specifically anthocyanins. These anthocyanins mitigate damage to the body due to oxidative stress. They also give blueberries their distinctive color.

Antioxidants

What really makes blueberries stand out, though, is a special class of antioxidants: Blueberries contain small amounts of resveratrol, a powerful antioxidant and anti-inflammatory substance most famously found in the skin of red grapes (and wine made from these grapes). Why eat blueberries for the resveratrol if you can get it in higher concentrations in red wine? It is because blueberries also contain a high amount of a related substance, called pterostilbene, that confers many of the same antioxidant and anti-inflammatory benefits as resveratrol, plus a suite of cardioprotective, neuprotective and blood sugar-regulating effects. Ironically, they may take longer for the body to metabolize than resveratrol, thus giving the body more time to benefit from its positive effects.

Fresh vs. Frozen: What Is The Best Way To Benefit From Blueberries?

There is no best way to benefit from blueberries. Whether fresh or frozen, there are nutritional advantages to each.

The Benefits Of Fresh Blueberries

One of the biggest upsides to eating fresh blueberries is seasonality. Come mid-May, we really look forward to eating fresh, plump blueberries. Plus, when you purchase fresh blueberries, you can also choose to support local farmers. 

There are nutritional advantages as well. Fresh blueberries contain a small amount of protein (1.1g/cup), while frozen blueberries contain none. Fresh blueberries also contain slightly higher amounts of iron, potassium and zinc than the frozen ones. On the flip side, from the moment that they are picked, the anthocyanin compounds in blueberry skin rapidly degrade.

The Benefits of Frozen Blueberries

The biggest upside of frozen blueberries is that you can eat them all year round. While you can find organic frozen packages at Trader Joe’s and most major supermarkets, Costco has the best deal and quality that I’ve found to date: 3 pounds of organic blueberries for about $9.

Frozen blueberries have a slew of nutritional advantages as well. Most of the antioxidants are in the skin of the fruit. And recent research suggests that the commercial flash-freezing process keeps the disease-fighting anthocyanin compounds intact and more available to fight cellular free radical damage than they would be if they were fresh. The ice crystals that form during the freezing process disrupt the the structure of the plant tissue, causing more anthocyanins to become available. The antioxidant levels stay elevated for at least 3 months of frozen storage.

Nutritionally, frozen blueberries have much more fiber (6.2g/cup) than fresh (3.6g/cup) and slightly more vitamin A than fresh. However, make sure to avoid frozen blueberries that have been sweetened. You don’t need the extra sugar and calories.

What Are Some Ways To Consume Blueberries?

Blueberries are so versatile. In addition to snacking on them in a bowl straight out of the fridge, there are a number of other ways to enjoy them, including in:

• SMOOTHIES Blueberries add flavor, texture and color to a smoothie. If you are a Costco member, they come in the frozen “Organic Super Smoothie” pack, along with strawberries, raspberries, bananas, kale and spinach. Another option is the Hot Ginger, a blueberry smoothie with ginger. Or you can make this raspberry-lemon cheesecake smoothie from The Blender Girl (aka Tess Masters). I always substitute blueberries for the raspberries, because it is less acidic and even more delicious.

• PANCAKES These nutritious blueberry oatmeal banana pancakes will melt in your mouth. Add blueberries to the mix and it is literally mouth-watering. Try this quick-and-easy pancake recipe now.

• CEREAL Throw a handful of blueberries on top of your breakfast cereal or oatmeal. My kids love their blueberries with Cascadian Farms Purely O’s or Arrowhead Mills Puffed Millet.

• CHEESECAKE Blueberries work very well in non-dairy cheesecake. Here is a very tasty recipe. Just don’t forget to freeze it so you don’t eat the entire cake at one sitting!

• YOGURT One of my favorite uses of blueberries is as a homemade flavoring in unflavored (plain) yogurt. Flavored yogurts are, across the board, heavily sweetened with added sugar (whether 2.2g/oz for Forager Blueberry Cashew Yogurt or 3.3g/oz for Yoplait Blueberry Yogurt) and loaded with additives, emulsifiers, flavors and other processed junk. You can add either frozen blueberries or fresh blueberries. By comparison, an ounce of real blueberries has about as much sugar as an ounce of yogurt flavored with blueberries. The advantage is that the real blueberries contain real nutrition. But you will most likely not even use that many blueberries. You can also add a little maple syrup to increase the sweetness.

Whether the blueberry is categorized as a superfruit or not, it is a mighty fruit and deserves a regular spot at your dining room table. It is also a terrific snack for the kids and a versatile addition to a multitude of tasty dishes.

What other culinary uses do you have for blueberries?