Blueberries are among the fruits with the highest antioxidant activity. Researchers have shown that a serving of fresh blueberries provide more antioxidant activity than many other fresh fruits and vegetables.

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Brain & Nervous System

     Neuroscientists have discovered that feeding blueberries to laboratory rats actually slowed age-related loss in their mental capacity, a finding that has important implications for humans. In one study, Jim Joseph, director of the neuroscience laboratory in the USDA Human Nutrition Research Center (HNRC), fed blueberry extractions--the equivalent of a human eating one cup of blueberries a day--to mice and then ran them through a series of motor skills tests.

     He found that the blueberry-fed mice performed better than their control group counterparts in motor behavioral learning and memory, and he noticed an increase in exploratory behavior. When he examined their brains, he found a marked decrease in oxidative stress in two regions of the brain and better retention of signal-transmitting neurons compared with the group of mice not consuming the blueberries.

     Currently, Jim Joseph is testing the effects of blueberries on humans. Preliminary results show that people who eat a cup of blueberries a day have performed 5-6% better on motor skills tests than the group not consuming the blueberries.

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