There's nothing quite as remarkable as natural remedies to everyday problems. Blueberries, the smaller kind which are also known as wild blueberries or bilberries, are a case in point. According to a paper published in the journal 'Public Library of Science (PLOS) One', eating wild blueberries can diminish the adverse effects of a high-fat diet. Wild blueberries are smaller than the usual blueberries and more acidic in nature. (Why blueberries are good for you)
Researchers at the University of Eastern Finland found that bilberries were shown to have beneficial effects on both blood pressure and nutrition-deprive inflammation. Low-grade inflammation and elevated blood pressure are often associated with obesity-related diseases. To prove their hypothesis, researchers focused on analyzing the health effects of bilberries on mice. They were fed a high-fat diet over a period of three months. Some of the mice were fed either 5 per cent or 10 per cent of freeze-dried bilberries in the diet. (Do 'superfoods' really exist?)
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.
Mice on the high-fat diet experienced significant weight gain and detrimental changes in glucose and lipid metabolism, inflammation factors and blood pressure. Bilberries diminished the pro-inflammatory effects of the high-fat diet, indicated by an altered cytokine profile and a reduced relative prevalence of inflammation supporting T-cells.
Bilberries also prevented elevated blood pressure caused by the high-fat diet. "Bilberries constitute an integral part of the Nordic diet and they could be better utilised also elsewhere in the world," researchers said. The beneficial health effects of bilberries are thought to be explained by the presence of polyphenols, especially anthocyanins, the levels of which are significantly higher in bilberries than in commercially cultivated blueberries.
With inputs from PTI