Berry good: 'Wash-and-ready' fruit is tasty — and healthful

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Blueberries may be nature's best-tasting medicine.

Researchers say they contain potent compounds that may help prevent certain cancers, lower blood pressure and cholesterol, fight urinary tract infections, reduce arthritis, help with vision and short-term memory, and ward off Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases.

That's a tall order for a little berry. And they're only 80 calories per cup.

"Blueberries were an original functional food," said Amy Howell, a Rutgers University professor who has studied compounds in blueberries. She spoke to a group of food editors at the National Chicken Cooking Contest in Charlotte, N.C., in May, telling them that as one of three native North American fruits, blueberries were historically used to treat scurvy, wounds, blood poisoning, stomach ailments and urinary disorders.

They were also used to preserve meat. One of the first meals Lewis and Clark shared with Indians in the Northwest Territory was venison with wild blueberries pounded into it, then smoked and dried.

Modern-day science has identified folic acid, vitamins A and C, minerals and fiber in berries. Antioxidants are also key players — substances found in plants that travel through the body, sopping up harmful molecules called "free radicals."

Howell has been involved in isolating an antioxidant compound in cranberries and blueberries that helps prevent urinary-tract infections.

"Blueberries and cranberries both contain proanthocyanidins, a substance we think may help prevent urinary-tract infection," said Howell. "Our research shows that they prevent harmful bacteria from sticking to the walls of the urinary tract. When the bacteria can't attach, they can't multiply to cause infection."

Although blueberries lose some of their antioxidants after cooking, they still retain the antibacterial effect even after they've been cooked, she said.

At Tufts University, a study published in the Journal of Neuroscience in September 1999 indicates that a diet rich in blueberries improved short-term memory loss and actually reversed some loss of coordination in aging rats. Howell told of a similar study, where rats were put in a swimming pool and shown where the exit was. The ones fed blueberries could locate the exit more quickly the next time.

Howell practices what she preaches, eating blueberries daily. "My kids take them to soccer practice. They love the trail mix snack I make with dried blueberries, whole-grain cereal and nuts."