Good bet that in late summer and early fall, when blueberries are cheap and abundant, you gorge on them. Brilliant. Even in the world of fruits and berries, which is loaded with health-boosting, age-fighting nutrition stars, blueberries are a super-nova. They're linked not only to skin, heart, eye, and urinary health but also to preventing cancer, diabetes, and Alzheimer's.
So how much of them should you be eating? About 1 to 2 cups a day, says Steven G. Pratt, MD, author of the new book SuperFoods: HealthStyle.
Oops. First, that's a lot of blueberries. Second, if they're not in season, how on earth are you going to eat a cup or more a day?
Stock your freezer. There's now evidence that frozen blueberries provide the benefits of fresh, says Dr. Pratt. A big tip-off was a European study that found that men who ate frozen berries daily had as much as 50 percent more quercetin in their blood than berry abstainers. You want to be like them. Quercetin is a particularly powerful anti-cancer antioxidant, among other things, so you want it as a lifelong friend.
Back to the oops. Eating fistfuls of blueberries a day is no risk weight-wise. You're only talking 79 calories a cup. And all those antioxidants pay off bigtime: Getting the right amount of antioxidants through diet or supplements can make your RealAge 6 years younger. Quite a tradeoff! Here are a few tips from Pratt and others about ways to eat a cup a day when the last pint of fat, fresh berries is finally gone:
- Dr. Pratt puts a cup of frozen in the fridge every night to defrost; the next morning, he sprinkles them over his cereal or stirs them into yogurt.
- If he forgets, he switches to a smoothie and adds the frozen berries to it.
- If anyone in the household is baking muffins or a quick-bread, make frozen blueberries an automatic addition -- just add 5 to 15 minutes to the baking time to compensate for their chilling effect.
- Toss a handful into a glass of cold club soda or lemonade as festive, edible ice cubes. (Works great with kids, too.)
- Just eat them plain, like tiny popsicles. (Ditto.)
- Add them to a seasonal citrus fruit salad in winter about 15 minutes before serving.
- Or click here for 1,262 blueberry recipes!
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