Blueberry boom in Britain driven by health benefitswww.foodanddrinkeurope.com

May 18, 2005

Sales of blueberries in the UK have rocketed over the last year as consumers seek the health benefits recently linked to the fruit.

The country’s leading retailer Tesco says that blueberry sales have risen by 185 per cent since last September and are growing month by month.

Other retailers have confirmed similar growth - Waitrose says sales are up 150 per cent - making the fruit the UK’s fastest growing. Sales grew by £14.7 million in the last year to reach £26.2 million, according to information from retail analysts Taylor Nelson Sofres.

The huge boom in popularity follows recent publicity from dieticians and scientists, who have hailed the fruit as one of nature’s superfoods.

Last summer scientists from the US Agricultural Research Service revealed that a compound found in blueberries called pterostilbene, similar to resveratrol, could be as effective as a widely used synthetic drug in reducing cholesterol.

Another study on rats has shown that when fed blueberries, they experienced less brain cell loss and improved recovery of movement following a stroke. The fruit has also been shown to protect against memory loss and have cancer-fighting properties.

All of these studies have however only been done in animals, but the success of the fruit in the UK demonstrates the British consumer’s hunger for functional foods and the trend for healthy eating.

“Our sales have nearly quadrupled since a run of newspaper and magazine articles hailed blueberries as one of nature’s wonder foods capable of helping protect the body against a wide range of ailments,” said Tesco blueberry buyer Andrew Gaunt.

Other 'superfoods', which are credited as having properties over and above those normally found in fresh fruit and vegetables, include garlic, broccoli and oily fish.

Blueberries also feature highly in the popular GI Diet that was launched across the UK in January. The regime recommends foods with slower sugar release.

Study finds blueberries beat cholesterol drug
Fruit has chemical that works better with fewer side effects

SCRIPPS HOWARD NEWS SERVICE
Tuesday, August 24, 2004

A compound in blueberries appears to be as effective at lowering cholesterol as a commercial drug, with fewer side effects, according to a new study using cells from rat livers.

The compound, called pterostilbene, has the potential to be developed into a natural medicine for lowering cholesterol, particularly for people who don't respond well to conventional lipid-lowering drugs, said Agnes Rimando, a research chemist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. She described the findings yesterday before the American Chemical Society's annual meeting in Philadelphia.

"We are excited to learn that blueberries, which are already known to be rich in healthy compounds, may also be a potent weapon in the battle against obesity and heart disease," said Rimando, who works in the Agricultural Research Service's National Products Utilization Research Unit in Oxford, Miss.

Blueberries have been getting high marks from food health researchers for some time now for being a top source of antioxidants, which inhibit cell damage, and for other chemicals known to have anti-cancer properties. Earlier research had indicated that high levels of a type of fiber called pectin help blueberries lower cholesterol. Other studies have suggested that the fruit may help preserve memory, too.

Rimando said that pterostilbene is similar to resveratrol, an antioxidant in grapes and red wine that's also a cholesterol-buster. Other researchers have found pterostilbene in grapes, but the new findings are the first to discover the compound in blueberries.

But until human studies can be done with the compound, Rimando said, "I can't say how many blueberries a person needs to eat to have a positive effect on their cholesterol." However, she noted that the fruit has long been touted as a folk medicine.

In laboratory studies done with colleagues at the University of Mississippi School of Pharmacy, Rimando exposed rat liver cells to four compounds found in blueberries. Of the four, pterostilbene showed the highest potency in activating a receptor that plays a role in reducing cholesterol and other fat in the bloodstream.

The compound was at least as effective as ciprofibrate, a drug used to reduce low-density (bad) cholesterol and triglycerides, and more effective than resveratrol. Ciprofibrate sometimes causes side effects such as muscle pain or nausea, however. The researchers believe that by targeting a specific cell receptor, the blueberry compound will have fewer side effects.

Berries, Beans Top 'Best Antioxidants List'

By E.J. Mundell
HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, June 28 (HealthDayNews) -- A variety of veggies, fruits and nuts battled it out this month for the top spot on a new list of the 20 most antioxidant-rich foods, ranked by nutrition scientists at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (news - web sites) (USDA).

In the end, small red beans won the day, narrowly beating out wild blueberries as the food with the highest concentration of disease-fighting compounds per serving.

Antioxidants fight damage to cells from rogue molecules called "free radicals." Experts believe this assault on cells may fuel killer diseases such as heart disease and cancer, and even aging itself.

The new Top 20 list, published in the June issue of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, "is a relative ranking of the capacity of foods to interfere with or prevent oxidative processes and to scavenge free radicals," explained list co-creator Ronald L. Prior, a USDA nutritionist and research chemist based in Little Rock, Ark.

Prior and his colleagues used the most advanced technologies available to tabulate antioxidant levels in more than 100 different types of fruits, vegetables, berries, nuts and spices.

Their Top 20:

Small red beans (dried).
Wild blueberries.
Red Kidney beans.
Pinto beans.
Blueberries (cultivated).
Cranberries.
Artichokes (cooked).
Blackberries.
Prunes.
Raspberries.
Strawberries.
Red Delicious apples.
Granny Smith apples.
Pecans.
Sweet cherries.
Black plums.
Russet potatoes (cooked).
Black beans (dried).
Plums.
Gala apples.

There's "still a lot we haven't learned" about why some foods are richer in antioxidants than others, Prior said. Even though the small red bean came out on top, "we don't have a lot of information on beans," he added.

Berries are better understood. "The components that contribute a lot of the antioxidant activity are what are called anthocyanins, the compounds that give many berries their dark blue color," he said.

In fact, color may be key to spotting foods that fight free radicals, said Roberta Anding, an American Dietetic Association spokeswoman and a nutritionist at Texas Children's Hospital in Houston.

"If you're looking for the best places to get antioxidants, I will usually tell folks to look at the colors of the rainbow," she added.

For example, "you'll find lutein with some of the yellow pigments found in corn; orange can be the pigments from the carotenoid family that are found in cantaloupe, butternut squash and mango; red could come from things like lycopene, found in tomatoes and watermelon. And then the darker colors -- the purples, blues, in berries," she said.

But Prior cautioned that just because a food has proven to be antioxidant-rich in the USDA's lab, that doesn't mean all those nutrients will be successfully absorbed by the human digestive tract.

"As we learn more and more, we're finding that, depending on the chemical makeup of antioxidants in different foods, some of them aren't apparently absorbed as well, or else they are metabolized in a form where they are no longer antioxidants," he said.

Whether a food is eaten fresh, frozen, processed or cooked can also affect its antioxidant potency -- for good or ill, he said. Blueberries are best when eaten fresh rather than cooked in a pie, for example. On the other hand, research has shown that gentle cooking raises the antioxidant power of tomatoes, he noted.

Although experts are working hard on the project, ongoing efforts to come up with daily dietary guidelines for antioxidant consumption will be "a long process," Prior said.

"How antioxidants behave, how they act within the body, the dose-response -- we just don't know enough about it," he said.

For her part, Anding said people shouldn't get too hung up on gorging on one particular food, but "cast your net widely," eating generous daily servings of a variety of fruits, vegetables and other wholesome foods.

Looking over the USDA's list, Anding suggested creating what she called an antioxidant "power salad."

First, she said, "put together a salad with a variety of mixed greens. Then I'd throw in some dried cranberries or blueberries from the health food store, toss in a few nuts, with a low-fat salad. Again -- choosing from the colors of the rainbow."