Blueberries And Antioxidants

Blueberries are nutritious, delicious and full of nutrients that make them a healthy fruit choice to enjoy in breakfast cereal, baked goods or simply on their own as a snack. Different varieties of blueberries can have flavors ranging from sweet to tart, but all have a characteristic blue or purple color. In addition to the high levels of vitamins and minerals they contain, blueberries are also a marvelous source of phytonutrient antioxidants that can boost health and protect you from disease.

Antioxidants in Blueberries

Blueberries contain a wide variety of healthy compounds, many of which have antioxidant activity. Antioxidant micronutrients found in blueberries include vitamin C, vitamin E and manganese. Phenolic acids and flavonoids are two types of phytochemicals that provide antioxidant activity in blueberries. The flavonoid pigment anthocyanin, which gives blueberries their dark color, acts as a particularly powerful antioxidant.

Antioxidant Activity

Oxygen radical absorbance capacity, or ORAC, is a measure of antioxidant activity. According to analysis done by the USDA Nutrient Data Laboratory, blueberries had the highest ORAC values of all foods tested. The total ORAC for blueberries was 6,552 micromoles TE/100 g. In comparison, the value of 100 g of red wine was 3,873, and broccoli has a value of 1,352.

Health Benefits

The antioxidant compounds in blueberries may contribute a variety of health benefits. Antioxidants keep cells safe from damage by free radicals. The flavonoid antioxidants in blueberries may also help protect the body against cancer and cardiovascular disease. In a 2005 animal study reported in the journal "Nutritional Neuroscience," diets high in antioxidants were linked to improvements in memory, although clinical trials are still needed to investigate whether this same effect will hold true in humans.

Affecting Factors

Storage and how you serve your blueberries may affect the antioxidant activity of this fruit. A study in th December 2004 issue of the "Journal of Biomedical Biotechnology" looked at the effect of freezing and drying on the anthocyanin content in blueberries and found that while drying does reduce the levels of anthocyanins, the total antioxidant activity remains high. Frozen blueberries retain both their overall anthocyanin content and antioxidant activity after three months of being frozen. However, serving blueberries with cereal and milk may not be the best idea, because a 2009 study in the journal "Free Radical Biology and Medicine" found that milk can inhibit the antioxidant activity of blueberries.