Think Blueberry Vitamins are as Healthy as Fresh Blueberries? Think Again
There’s no denying the health benefits of blueberries. Blueberries offer a combination of vitamins, nutrients like antioxidants and fiber that have been shown in studies to benefit your heart and cardiovascular system, reduce blood pressure, improve memory, fight cancer and aid in weight loss. It’s no wonder that many people want to package the health benefits into blueberry vitamins. You might be tempted into buying some to help those New Year’s resolutions that are geared towards being a healthier you. However, studies into blueberry vitamins have proven that nothing comes close to real blueberries.
Blueberry Vitamin Study Results
Many blueberry vitamins claim to offer the same nutritional and health benefits of fresh blueberries; it’s the same with many other fruits that pack a significant nutritional punch like blueberries. A 2016 study published in the journal Food Science Nutrition looked at the anthocyanin levels of many “vitamins” that claimed to offer health benefits similar to those of fruits like blueberries, cranberry, lingonberry and bilberry.
Anthocyanin are a type of flavonoid that give fruits their blue, red or purple coloring. They are also believed to be responsible for a significant portion of the healthfulness of blueberries and other berries. Many blueberry vitamins claim to offer the same levels of anthocyanin as blueberries, as do vitamins for other healthful berries. A cup of blueberries averages 163 mg of anthocyanin.
This study measured the anthocyanin levels of 45 supplements and “blueberry vitamins.” A few highlights of the study were:
- 30% of the products didn’t contain one bit of the fruit they claimed was present in the pill’s ingredients list
- Some products contained no anthocyanin whatsoever
- Those products that actually did contain anthocyanins offered paltry amounts: 0.60 mg/pill to 2.23 mg/pill, significantly less than the 163 mg of anthocyanin found in one cup of fresh blueberries.
Nature’s Perfect Packaging
It’s no wonder that some people would like to pack the nutrition and healthfulness of blueberries into a pill, but blueberries already deliver health and nutrition in a little round package. The best way to get the health and nutritional benefits of blueberries is to do as nature intended: consume more blueberries! Find recipes for all three meals, appetizers, snacks and desserts here!
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