With
Great Taste Comes Great Power
Oregon blackberries and raspberries have recently earned a healthy new nutritional distinction,
giving us yet another incentive to include berries in our daily diets,
year-round. Fresh, cooked, or frozen, Oregon berries have
demonstrated
such powerfully beneficial properties that they have been classified as
nutraceuticals.
Nutraceuticals
are foods or parts of a food that provide medical or health benefits
beyond
basic nutrition, including prevention and treatment of disease. These
properties
apply to all of our Oregon berries – red raspberries, black
raspberries,
Evergreen blackberries, Marionberries, and Boysenberries.
Grown
abundantly in Oregon’s fertile Willamette
Valley, berries are rich in naturally occurring, healthful plant
compounds
called phytochemicals. These compounds, along with the vitamins,
minerals,
and fiber found in berries, provide significant health benefits, even
in
a daily serving as small as one-half cup.
A Short Lesson In
Berry Science
When
it
comes to nutrition, no one has been able to outsmart Mother Nature.
Consider what researchers have found present within the confines of a
small raspberry or blackberry.
Besides
containing proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals,
Oregon blackberries and raspberries contain several extremely important phytochemicals
(naturally
occurring chemicals from plants) which research shows may slow down the
aging process, boost immunity, and protect against chronic disease.
So,
why not just take a nutritional supplement? Research shows that
it is a combination of phytochemicals working together with berry
fiber,
vitamins, and minerals which make it so wholly effective. For example,
the combination of anthocyanins, Vitamin C, and ellagic acid can act
together
as antioxidants, contributing to the high ORAC (Oxygen Radical
Absorbance
Capacity) value found in berries. Scientists have also found that
caneberries
may have cancer-fighting properties, which cannot yet be attributed to
only one component.
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