Blueberries May Help Fight Osteoporosis
In an animal study, it has been demonstrated that consumption of blueberries may help reduce the incidence of post-menopausal osteoporosis.
As reported in the study published in The Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry:
“The findings of the present study indicate that blueberry protected against the ovariectomised -induced bone loss as it prevented the loss of whole-body BMD and had an intermediary effect on tibial and femoral BMD,” wrote the researchers.
“This effect may be due to the components of blueberry which function as free radical scavengers. This observation is supported by a report which ranks the blueberry extract to have the highest antioxidant capacity in comparison with other fruits and reference compounds such as vitamin C.”
Naturally, these findings will have to be confirmed in humans, but before that, further studies are also necessary to identify the bioactive component(s) of blueberry responsible this effect, the mechanism(s) of action and the lowest effective dose of the compound.
Photo Credit: Blueberries, by Kevin Lawver
This has led me to think I will be shortly saying:
‘This is just to say that I have eaten the blueberries that were in the icebox and which you were probably saving for breakfast. Forgive me. They were delicious, so sweet and soooooo healthy!’
:O)