Eat a handful of berries and you’ll be rewarded with a burst of sweetness in your mouth. Berries are wonderful fruits. You can put them in desserts, drinks, salads, or use them to adorn other foods like pancakes. You can even eat them by themselves, and they still taste really good.
The very appearance of berries should give you some clues that nature’s candy is good for you. “Vibrant, brightly colored fruits and vegetables provide some of the highest levels of nutrients, especially antioxidants. Berries are some of the most vibrantly colored fruits you’ll find,” says Anna Binder-McAsey, RD, owner of Rethink Nutrition in Manhattan, Kansas. These antioxidants have anti-inflammatory properties, which may help protect your body from disease as you age. “Berries should be considered a healthy part of an anti-inflammatory lifestyle for both prevention and chronic disease management,” she adds. Here are 5 good reasons to include berries in your diet.
1. Berries are packed with antioxidants
Pretty much all berries are loaded to the brim with antioxidants. For those who don’t know, antioxidants help prevent illness, improve your skin and hair, and lead to a healthier life. That’s why people who drink smoothies all the time always seem so happy!
2. Berries can help you lose weight
Berries are low in calories and that means you can load up on them without packing on the pounds. Because they are juicy they contain a lot of water, so much of their mass is really water, which contains no calories at all. A medium sized strawberry has between three and six calories. A cup of blueberries has only about 80 calories. Instead of grabbing the potato chips, grab yourself some berries.
3.Berries help improve blood sugar and insulin response
Test-tube and human studies suggest that they may protect your cells from high blood sugar levels, help increase insulin sensitivity, and reduce blood sugar and insulin response to high-carb meals. Importantly, these effects appear to occur in both healthy people and those with insulin resistance. In one study in healthy women, eating 5 ounces (150 grams) of puréed strawberries or mixed berries with bread led to a 24–26% reduction in insulin levels, compared to consuming the bread alone. Moreover, in a six-week study, obese people with insulin resistance who drank a blueberry smoothie twice per day experienced greater improvements in insulin sensitivity than those who consumed berry-free smoothies.
4. Berries might prevent Parkinson's disease due to their flavonoid content
People who eat at least two servings of berries a week have a 23 percent less chance of developing Parkinson’s disease than their peers, according to research published in Neurology. The same study showed that men with the highest intake of flavonoids, which are abundant in berries, reduced their risk by 40 percent. Besides eating them plain, you can also get your berry servings by adding them fresh or frozen to other high-nutrition foods such as yogurt and salads.
5. Berries have a ton of anthocyanins
The jury is still out as to what anthocyanins do exactly, but pretty much everyone believes that they give you health benefits of some kind. For those who don’t know, anthocyanins are what gives berries their distinct colors. Think of them like nature’s food coloring. They are believed to have preventative and therapeutic properties, such as the ability to lower the risk of cardiovascular disease and stroke.
