Is the fountain of youth… a smoothie?!
This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science.
A healthy diet is essential for keeping our brains youthful, but not all foods are equal. With LONG lists of “superfoods” circulating the internet – kale, broccoli, cocoa nibs – where do you begin?
Enter Robert Krikorian and team at the Cincinnati Academic Health Center. They believed the tiny – but mighty – blueberry held the key.
To test this, they recruited around thirty participants, ages fifty to sixty-five. For THREE MONTHS, about half received powdered blueberries and the other half a placebo powder.
Results? The blueberry-treated group had better recall scores, indicating improvements on long-term memory. They also showed better memory recovery when given a test to interfere with memory formation. The cherry on top? The blueberry group showed improvements in metabolism!
Researchers hope this discovery propels others to look at supplements right in our own kitchens.
So next time you lose your keys, eat some blueberries! You might be BERRY surprised by the result.
Reference: Krikorian, R., Skelton, M. R., Summer, S. S., Shidler, M. D., & Sullivan, P. G. (2022). Blueberry Supplementation in Midlife for Dementia Risk Reduction. Nutrients, 14(8), 1619. MDPI AG. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nu14081619