In a study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition researchers found that eating one cup of blueberries each day could reduce the risk of heart disease by 15%. Often people with heart disease also have metabolic syndrome, a condition that affects a third of adults with high blood pressure, excess belly fat, and low levels of HDL, good cholesterol.
For those subjects that ate one cup of blueberries each day for 6 months they showed improvements in vascular function and artery stiffness, both of which will reduce the risk for heart disease. Blueberries are high in anthocyanins, the pigment responsible for their blue color.
Anthocyanins are powerful compounds with many health-promoting properties. Eating blueberries regularly lowers the risk for type 2 diabetes, neurological conditions, cancer, and inflammation in addition to lowering the risk for heart disease.
An interesting finding of the study, is that those subjects that ate less than one cup of blueberries daily did not experience the same health benefits. One cup of fresh blueberries has 84 calories.
