Wild Blueberries May Combat Obesity-Related Symptoms

Most people know that blueberries are good for you; they possess antioxidants that can help your body. Yet did you know that eating wild blueberries, known as bilberries, can diminish the adverse effects of a high-fat diet? Scientists have discovered that bilberries have beneficial effects on blood pressure and nutrition-derived inflammatory responses.

Low-grade inflammation and elevated blood pressure are often associated with obesity-related diseases. In order to see whether bilberries could help mitigate these effects, the scientists fed the berries to mice that were fed on a high-fat diet for a period of three months. Some of the mice were fed either five percent or ten percent of freeze-dried bilberries in their diet.

Once the period of feeding was over, the researchers assessed the effects of the diets by looking at inflammatory cell and cytokine levels, systolic blood pressure, glucose tolerance, insulin sensitivity and weight gain.

The researchers found that mice on the high-fat diet gained a significant amount of weight, and also had detrimental changes in their glucose and lipid metabolism, and blood pressure. Yet the mice that were fed bilberries while on the high-fat diet experienced less of these detrimental changes. In fact, the wild blueberries reduced the pro-inflammatory effects and prevented elevated blood pressure.

While bilberries are an integral part of the Nordic diet, the findings reveal that bilberries could be part of a healthy diet around the world. Because their associated with several beneficial health effects, including them in your diet could help improve your health.

The findings are published in the journal PLOS One.

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