Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Blueberries are good for your brain


Another study published in 2012 about dietary berry intake associated with slower rates of cognitive decline:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22535616

Here's a reference to a 2010 article by Krikorian et al. published in The Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20047325

The article describes a randomized, placebo-controlled study in which 9 elderly adults were given about 500 ml/day of blueberry juice, with another 7 given a placebo fruit juice without blueberries. The study lasted 12 weeks, at which time cognitive and mood tests were administered.

The blueberry group clearly showed better memory performance than the placebo group, and the results had a robust level of statistical significance. The blueberry group also showed some improvement in depression symptoms.

Here's a reference to another review article on this:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18211020

The authors allude to other studies showing improved cognitive performance in animals given blueberry supplementation.

In the meantime, it seems quite sound advice to include more blueberries in your diet. An excellent snack food, a much healthier alternative than junk foods such as chips or candies, etc.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

thank you for this great article.

Do you think you might be able to right an entry on particular vitamins or minerals that are helpful for anxiety/depression.

Things like Vitamin B, C, or Magnesium, fish oil, etc.

GK said...

I've posted several other entries about these issues under the nutrition heading.