Berries are better than you may think

A new study suggests that women who eat more berries have a lower risk of facing cognitive decline during old age.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Shown by their scores on memory tests, women who had a higher berry intake actually postponed cognitive aging by almost 2.5 years. According to researchers, blueberries and strawberries, which have high levels of flavonoid compounds, seem to provide the greatest benefit.

"We provide the first epidemiologic evidence that berries may slow progression of cognitive decline in elderly women," said Elizabeth Devore, an instructor at Harvard Medical School in Boston. "Our findings have significant public health implications, as increasing berry intake is a fairly simple dietary modification to test cognition protection in older adults."

Flavonoids have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties to counter stress and inflammation that can eventually cause cognitive impairment. Increasing one's consumption of flavonoids could diminish the harmful effects. Previously, research of flavonoids, specifically a group of compounds called anthocyanins, has been done with animals and small trials on older people. It is suggested that an increased consumption of foods with these compounds can also improve cognitive function.

Data from 16,000 women taking part in the Nurses' Health Study, which began 1976 and is conducted by researchers from Harvard Medical School and its hospitals. Health and lifestyle questionnaires were completed by participants, who's average age was 74. Between 1995 and 2001, researchers studied their cognitive function every two years. The results were that increased consumption of blueberries and strawberries appear to slow and delay cognitive decline in older women. Also associated with reduced cognitive degeneration was the greater intake of anthocyanins and total flavonoids.

Also noted, is that in the study, participants were not eating pounds of berries every day. In fact, on average they were only eating a single half-cup serving of blueberries or two half-cup servings of strawberries each week!

"This is pretty compelling evidence to suggest that berries do appear to have memory benefits," says researcher Elizabeth E. Devore, ScD, instructor in medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.

So if you want your Golden Years to be healthy and well-remembered, eat those berries!

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