Super Foods for a Super You: Part II of V: Super Berries

I have a wonderful little routine. I love those small energizing meals that make you feel fantastic, put you back on track when you believe you’re about to loose focus, or just simply have the effect of making you a happier person. My Casall colleagues probably think I’m a little freak of blueberries and well…yeah, they’re so right. My morning booster consists of a wonderful mix of Kesella Lätt (it’s the new cottage cheese: only 75 calories with 13 g of protein, found only in Sweden I believe. I was introduced to it by my fabulous Swedish PT, Magnus), those big fresh blueberries you buy in a little plastic box from Coop, and a spoon of Ezekial cereal and a sprinkle of Salba (make sure to read Super Grains, Part I just below). Or I could equally well just delve into that little box of blueberries without any additives – I love them in their pure, natural form and I just can’t get enough of them!

What’s more, you can eat as much as you want. No limits, no bad feelings. Small nutritional powerhouses are what they are, invaluable to my spirit and health – both for the quick, short-term good feeling as well as for the long-term healthy me. Research supports the fact that berries are among the fruits highest in antioxidants. The antioxidant buzz has been huge recently; still many people seem unable to explain why in fact we should eat them. Why are they such a good friend of our bodies?

Super berries, including blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, goji berries, acai, pomegranate, camu, lucuma, mulberries, and many more, carry a high content of antioxidants. Apart from this, they are also a rich source of minerals, vitamins, and fibers – however, my focus here will be on the important feature of antioxidants in their role as health promoters long-term. Low in fat, good for your cholesterol levels, and low in carbs and calories, these small miracles of nature definitely gives you more than their size or appearance would suggest. Just to give you a quick understanding of their nutritional value: one cup of blueberries, strawberries, or raspberries gives you more than the recommended amount of Vitamin C for a whole day. So besides the delicious taste, eating berries is one of the best long-term nutritional investments you could probably do.

Antioxidants. These are substances that reduce oxidative damage such as those caused by the release of free radicals in the body. Shortly, antioxidants are chemical compounds of various minerals, vitamins, enzymes, amino acids, and phytochemical antioxidants. There are hundreds of different types and versions; however they share a common capacity to reduce the oxidative damage to our cells and tissues. They hence help our bodies to counteract the natural oxidation that contributes to the ageing process and many chronic diseases such as Alzheimer’s, cancer, cardiovascular illnesses, and rheumatoid arthritis, among others. So, this is where the so-called super berries, implied by the epithet itself, enter the stage: they bring you those important antioxidants in various degrees, and even small amounts are needed to cover the daily intake recommendation. I’ve understood many people rely on those food supplements in tablet form, and of course this is better than not ingesting any of those vital substances at all. However, this is not as effective as eating them in their pure, natural form, and me, personally, can’t see why it would be a difficult choice having the real berries instead of some artificial unattractive pills on your tongue.

Measuring the antioxidant capacity of foods involves using ORAC values. It stands for Oxygen Radical Absorption Capacity and measures how well the antioxidants in the specific food neutralize free radicals. To get a clue about the antioxidant content of different foods, I’ve listed some of the super berries and some other foods for you to compare and understand what products are high in antioxidants and which are not. The ORAC value is expressed in the unit of micromoles per 100 grams servings, which is commonly used as a standard.

Gogi Berry 25,300 (seriously? Yeah..seriously)
Acai Berry 18 500 (obviously a true super berry)
Prunes 5 770
Raisins 2 830
Blueberries 2 400 (2x that of raw spinach)
Blackberries 2 036
Mulberries 2036
Cranberries 1 750
Strawberries 1 540 (2x that of broccoli florets)
Spinach 1 260
Red grapes 739
Salba 7000 (yes, not a berry but I can’t go off enough about this little miracle. Read Super Grains post below)

Goji berries, tops the list by a landslide! Recently it has become an extremely popular health beverage known as goji juice. However, eating the berries as they are in their pure form is both less expensive and probably a better health-carrier. Goji berries are commonly found in Chinese herbal stores, whereas the juice can be purchased through several channels, ranging from health food stores to online stores. In terms of its health benefits, goji berries have played a central role in traditional Chinese medicine, where they are eaten raw, soaked with tea or added to soups. Antioxidants are again one of the main reasons for ingesting this berry; this time we are particularly dealing with carotenoids, such as zeaxanthin. This type of antioxidant is involved in reducing the risk of age-related vision loss and blindness at a later stage in life.

Goji berries

Acai berries are super berries which have gained a lot of attention in discussions of dietary supplements for quite some time now. They can be found in many forms, including tablets, smoothies, drink powders, and whole fruits. Its nutritional value can be examined in terms of its importance to traditional populations in Brazil where acai berries have constituted more than 40% of total food intake per day. Acai berries carry the omega fatty acids that help to lower harmful cholesterol, while maintaining the beneficial one, giving it unusually similar characteristics to olive oil. Speaking about antioxidants, a popular reference is often made to red wine, “one glass per day…”. Listen and remember: acai is rich in antocyanins, which is one crucial antioxidant type that helps combating premature ageing, and acai berries do in fact carry 10-30 times more antocyanins than a glass of red wine does.

There are plenty of possibilities to mix the super berries with other ingredients to make awesome meals, breakfasts, etc. This is my friend’s recipe for a nice smoothie which I love to make for myself. It takes like 10 minutes to prepare and serves around 4 people:

• 1 cup of washed, chopped strawberres
• 1/2 cup washed, chopped blueberries
• 1 cup orange freshly squeezed juice
• 1/2 cup pineapple juice
• 1/4 cup cranberry juice
• 1/2 cup ginger piece (further adds to the antioxidant content)
• Some mint leaves
• 1 tablespoon honey (only if the berries are sour)
• 2 pinches of black pepper

Of course, as in all other instances of picking the optimal parts of a healthy diet you should go for variety. Merely eating berries is definitely not a recommendation I would give; Hollywood rumours of a Victoria Beckham eating a cup of blueberries in the morning, some salad for lunch and an almost non-existent dinner is in no way in accordance with my recommendation of eating berries. Just to make it clear enough.

I shared a yummy Swedish blueberry pie with a Swedish friend the other night – awesome! Vanilla ice-cream works fine, but I’d rather go for the Vaniljvisp – fluffy, yummy, and light! I know most Swedes can do the blueberry pie by heart, but this standard recipe is for anyone who stands outside of that group:

Blueberry Pie

125 gram butter
225 gram sugar
1.5 tablespoon baking powder
140 gram flour
1 egg
200 gram blueberries

Preheat the oven to 175°C. Melt the butter and let it cool for a while. Beat egg and sugar until fluffy. Add the butter, and beat to incorporate. Add the flour and the baking powder, and stir until batter is uniform. Spread into a greased pie dish, and scatter the berries on top. Bake, low in the oven, for about an hour.

Enjoy!