Blueberries and nuts can make an excellent snack either alone or as a topping for unsweetened yogurt with active cultures. Each component of this mix offers unique nutrients that contribute to optimal health. It can take time to adjust to a diet based on vegetables, omega-3 rich proteins, fresh fruits and whole grains in healthy-size portions. Eating this combination as a mid-morning or late afternoon snack helps alleviate hunger.
Benefits of Blueberries
Blueberries deliver just 84 calories per cup, but packed into those few calories are vitamins A, C and K in addition to significant amounts of potassium, fiber and water. In addition, a study by researchers at the University of Milan, Italy, and the University of Maine found that when wild blueberries were fed to baby rats, the DNA of cells in their immune systems was unaffected by forms of oxidative stress. Reported in the April 2009 issue of the "Journal of the Foundation of the American Society for Experimental Biology," these findings indicate wild blueberries may help prevent degenerative disease or damage to the immune system.
Benefits of Nuts
Omega-3 is an essential polyunsaturated fatty acid found in specific groups of nuts as well as oily, cold-water fish; avocados; olive oil; and flax seed. Omega-3 consumption is associated with lower-than-average risks of cardiovascular disease, asthma, eczema, depression and bipolar disorder and many inflammatory diseases, making it a health-promoting nutrient sought by many people. Although salmon, tuna, halibut and lake trout are the most concentrated source of omega-3, not everyone likes fish; a small percentage of people have seafood allergies, so it's important to have alternatives. Almonds, walnuts and macadamia nuts as well as pistachios all contain high concentrations of omega-3 and contribute colon-healthy fiber and minerals as well.
The Combination
When blueberries and nuts are combined in a single meal or snack, their benefits are magnified. The vitamin C in blueberries promotes the absorption of the iron in nuts while the water in the berries works with the fiber in the nuts to enhance digestive function.
Areas of Current Research
Chronic Inflammation in the body appears to be the result of many factors that plague 21st-century Americans and, increasingly, the rest of the world's population as well. It contributes to cardiovascular disease, diabetes and many cancers and is largely preventable.
In general, the Western diet is high in calories -- especially in the form of saturated fats and sugars -- and the modern lifestyle increasingly minimizes our need for physical activity. This leads to inflammation in the body. In addition, chronic viral infections, such as human papillovirus, or HPV, and bacterial infections such as gingivitis can exist undetected and untreated for years, but all that time they cause the involved tissues to become inflamed. Excess abdominal fat contributes to inflammation chemically by increasing release of the stress hormone, cortisol. This fat-distribution pattern also causes mechanical inflammation as the fat irritates the organs of the abdomen and upper pelvis. Finally, a weak, protuberant abdomen causes a loss of support for the lumbar spine. Without this support, the lumbar vertebrae become chronically inflamed.
While weight loss through dieting and exercise and clearing chronic infections is the ultimate cure for chronic inflammation, some foods appear to be naturally anti-inflammatory. In July 2009, researchers at Harvard University reported in the "Journal of Clinical Nutrition" that walnuts appear to contribute significantly to the reduction of inflammation.
While this research continues, anyone concerned about chronic inflammation would be wise to allocate about 200 calories a day to the combination of a 1/2 cup of walnuts and 1 cup of wild blueberries. Better still is eating them while taking a hour long walk to the gym.
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