Berries, berries, berries! | Powerfood Chronicles #1

It leaked earlier: I love berries! They are sweet antioxidative wonders with low GI; and due to a very hot summer, there’s an abundance of fresh berries.

Berries… Nature’s original sweet & sour drops and lollies – with immense health benefits. Local grown, organic berries are just as much a SUPER FOOD as are exotic goji, acai and whatstheirface berries. Berries are are a fave with many nutritionists – low in calories, rich in vitamins, minerals, fibre – what’s not to love?

Professeur Béliveau suggests in his famous book on nutrition in cancer prevention that you should consume 1/2 cup of either raspberries, blueberries or blackberries + 1/2 cup of grapes + 1/2 cup of cranberries on a daily basis as part of your healthy diet. It’s really the easiest part of his suggestions for me apart from grapes, I don’t fancy grapes. Research shows, I could possibly substitute them with blueberries, so I can eat more raspberries (my fabourite)…

“OK, WE GET IT, BERRIES ARE GOOD FOR YOU!” – Now, let’s get the facts straight.

ENTER: RASPBERRY

My favourite! Because you can blow them. He hehe he.
Sorry 😀

No, they really are my fave berries: sweet and sour, beautifully fragrant, sensually silky – and that colour! The real perks of raspberries are: they’re low-cal, rich in fibre (20% fiber per total weight, wow!), low-sugar (<5 g in 100 g), contain manganese (40% daily value per 1 cup serving!), calcium, magnesium, folic acid, copper, iron, vitamins C (>50% of daily value per cup!) and E, and powerful, antioxidant phytochemicals such as carotenoids, anthocyanin pigments, flavonoids, and more.

On a common sense note: these values don’t apply to strawberry smoothies – there the sugars prevail. Research also suggests that eating whole fruit and chewing the seeds, too!

HELLO, BLUEBERRIES

Hello, beautiful! They look like blue velvet, don’t they?

Blueberries are subtle. They contain a vast variety of powerful antioxidants, cancer-beating (-preventing) antocyanins, even resveratrol – that uberhealthy stuff from grapes – is found. Research links blueberry consumption with lowering blood sugar (I double that effect by adding blood-sugar-busting cinnamon), beneficial stress-reducing effects, positive blood pressure regulation. While blueberries contain more sugar than raspberries, their GI is as low as 4.INTERESTING FACT >>> In Europe, especially in Germany, cultured blueberries are considered the most natural and healthy berries because pesticide use is banned and “natural” cures are used instead (good insects that fight the bad insects). As far as I know, while organic farms in the US have implemented this natural method as well, the FDA says conventional cultured blueberries are potentially pretty harmful. US health/food experts consider blueberries one of the “dirty dozen” that you better should buy in organic quality.

LET’S NOT FORGET THE STRAWBERRIES

The only thing I miss here are Wild Strawberries. Those minuscule red wonders that sit in the grass, where simple white blossoms sat before. The joy of finding them, hidden under the distinct, fragrant, elegantly pleated leaves. We’d pluck them and string them on a freshly found grass stalk…

I digress 🙂

Strawberries can cause severe allergies, which is a pity because they’re by far a more powerful vitamin C source than oranges, and a source of fiber, manganese, folate and potassium, and of course, various antioxidants.

CHERRY T. and CHERRY W.

Sour cherries a.k.a. tart cherries a.k.a. wild cherries are, as one of the names suggests, sour. The many different local sweet cherry varieties are the base for preserves, jams, juices, pies, dried fruit, beverages etc. you can enjoy throughout the year.  I rarely see fresh sour cherries here in Berlin, so whenever I spot their very distinct, bright “cocktail cherry” red, I run for it.

Benefits: There is research running to prove whether sour cherries – high in melatonin – can help cure insomnia (!), pain and inflammations and reduce stroke, cardiovascular and diabetes risks.

Sweet cherries a.k.a. bird cherries are the sweeter variety, just as packed with antioxidants. It’s been documented that sweet cherries protect neuronal cells (potential help for Alzheimer patients) and help fight arthritis symptoms. They’re also rich in fibre and good for our digestive health.

BON APETIT!