How My Child-Like Wonder for This Fruit Paid Off.
Pop a few a day, make them go away!
I live in tropical Singapore. Ever since I was little, I’d follow my dad around while he did his grocery shopping.
One day, as we were grocery shopping this peculiar-looking fruit caught my attention.
They were blueberries.
As a kid, it was something I'd never seen before, and rightfully so, since Singapore is a tropical country, making it impossible to grow them here.
I begged my dad to get me a box and he agreed after my incessant begging.
The moment I put it in my mouth, I was hooked to that tangy sour but sweet taste, and I could eat them on and on and on…
I’ve always seen it as something unique. Coming from a tropical climate, berries have always been seen as something rare. And as the saying goes, rare things often taste sweeter. Or something like that…
So every chance I get, I would buy them. I especially love it when they are sold on sale in bulk at my local supermarket!
But after reading up more about these fruits, I was so glad it's been something I consume regularly.
Here’s why you should include it in your diet, for better brain health, better metabolic health, and better gut health.
Brain Berries
On my self-improvement journey, one of the books that I read was Genius Foods.
Through it, I got a better understanding of how what we eat can affect our gut, but more importantly our brain too.
This mighty berry can make our brain AND gut more “healthy”.
But to understand this, it's important to know what a blueberry is made up of.
Polyphenols
Polyphenols are a type of chemical compound that is found in plants and fruits. They have been shown to have a huge positive effect on the body through various avenues.
Many superfoods contain these, such as Dark Chocolate and Extra Virgin olive oil.
Lucky for us, so do Blueberries.
But these little blue balls have a certain type of polyphenol, known as Anthocyanins. Studies have shown that they contain 25 of them!
Anthocyanins
These are what give the “blue” in blueberries. They tend to give dark purple and blue color in other fruits and vegetables.
Here’s where it gets interesting. Studies have shown that these antioxidants can cross the blood-brain barrier, and also help with enhancing signaling in the parts of the brain that handle memory.
To put it simply, blueberries can help with memory.
With an increase in memory comes better cognitive aging, especially in older folks. So remember to eat your berries!
Gut Berries
On top of helping the brain, blueberries help with the gut microbiome as well.
In a study, it showed that blueberries, among other fruits and berries, changed the gut microbiome more than others.
In the same study, it was shown that the berries helped with the production of short-chain fatty acids (SCFA), which is a subset of fatty acids that are produced in the gut.
Now here's the important part. SCFAs have been shown to have anticancer, cardiovascular protective, hepatoprotective, and neuroprotective properties.
Wow, that’s a lot. In short:
Blueberries help to give you a healthy gut microbiome, which in turns help with disease prevention.
Metabolic Berries
Last but not least, blueberries have been shown to reduce different metabolic-related diseases as well.
In this study, It was shown that when people consumed blueberries daily, there were reports of significant weight loss with a reduction in body fat, reduction in insulin resistance, and lowering LDL cholesterol.
Now of course it's important to note that we need to be mindful of everything else that we are eating, but the fruits seem to give that upper edge in terms of giving these benefits.
But it's also good to note that blueberries do not contain the same amount of fructose as other fruits, like bananas.
So they can help with giving you the benefits of fruits without spiking your blood glucose levels. Talk about a fruit that doesn’t affect sugar levels!
in Short:
Blueberries may help to improve metabolic indicators.
Now I think it's tough to refute the fact of NOT eating these super fruits anymore.
I hope that this has provided some level of information in terms of fruits that you should be consuming for overall health.
Do you eat blueberries? Let me know in the comments!
Keep going!
Consider Subscribing to my mailing list if you like physical and mental health content like this!
