In the quest for finding the best modifications to your diet, you may be thinking of weighing the pros and cons of certain food items, such as blueberries and blackberries. On the whole, berries are healthy and should all be considered a part of a five-a-day attempt to get as many types of fruits and vegetables as possible per day.
In short, there is no harm in getting more berries, regardless of the color and type. But if you would like to get into the science of things, it’s always a good idea to put food items side by side to have a better idea of what you are consuming and what health benefits you are obtaining by choosing to consume these berries.
Which Is Higher in Antioxidants, Blueberries or Blackberries?
Research shows that blueberries and blackberries are equal in terms of providing antioxidants to consumers. There is no particular advantage if you pick blackberries over blueberries and vice versa. We recommend that you get both whenever you can because these fruits do have minute differences in other nutritional content.
If you don’t like eating berries all the time, you can alternate them weekly, or you can always add different kinds of berries to smoothies and other snacks to get your five-a-day. Again, there is nothing wrong with consuming either berry, as they provide the same quantity of antioxidants and the same types of antioxidants.
You may have already heard of antioxidants before, but you may not be sure why they are essential to maintaining good health. In a nutshell, antioxidants are unique chemical compounds or molecules that help keep free radicals down. Free radicals are a type of byproduct that the body produces from metabolism and other normal physiological and chemical activities.
If there is an activity within the body, there are always waste products, and you can think of free radicals as these waste products. Usually, the body is capable of dealing with these waste products on its own. However, poor lifestyle choices, poor diets, and stress can all reduce the body’s ability to minimize the impact of free radicals.
At this point, natural sources of antioxidants like fruits and vegetables come into the picture. Fruits like berries are biological repositories of antioxidants, and these plant phenolics and flavonoids all contribute to reducing the damage caused by the free radicals in the body.
Concisely, your body is getting an internal cleansing whenever you consume food and beverages naturally rich in antioxidants. You do not have to overdo it, but you can make it a point to eat more berries and other fruits to ensure that you have a steady supply of antioxidants in your body.
This is critical if you want to fight various conditions like cardiovascular impairments and other chronic diseases. Medical researchers have long established a link between these chronic conditions and a person’s diet. Essentially, their message is you have to build up good health by eating a more sensible diet, so your body can take care of you at an advanced age.
You may not feel the effects of a poor diet now, but you will after a few decades. This is what we are trying to avoid, so we have to make the dietary changes now.
Going back to berries like raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries – why are these fruits so special?
There is scientific proof that berries contain the highest concentration and activity in terms of antioxidant content if we contrast the antioxidant activity of berries side by side with other fruits. The message is clear – if you feel that you need more antioxidants in your diet, the most transparent and most convenient way to get that is by eating more berries. They’re tasty, cheap, and easy to buy anywhere, so why wouldn’t you have more berries in your diet?
What Are the Benefits of Eating Blackberries?
- One serving of blackberries provides 30.2 grams of vitamin C. Vitamin C is one of the most valuable vitamins known to man. It serves not just the respiratory system but also the immune system, skeletal system, skin, etc.
Vitamin C is so essential to the body that you can get into a lot of trouble medically if you regularly miss getting vitamin C. Luckily, blackberries will always provide a great dose of vitamin C with such small servings.
Getting enough vitamin C in your diet will mean:- Your wounds will heal more quickly.
- Your skin will be healthy and more vibrant.
- You will naturally beat down the free radical levels in your body for the long term.
- You will easily absorb organic iron, which is critical to many physiological functions, including healthy blood.
- If you get flu and colds, your body will fight off the infections more easily.
- You will prevent the onset of scurvy.
- Blackberries contain at least eight grams of fiber per servings. Dietary fiber is essential for keeping the digestive system healthy. Not getting enough fiber affects every known organ in the body.
- Blackberries contain vitamin K, which helps improve the body’s ability to clot and build bones. The body’s clotting factor may not be so apparent to you until you get a cut or an injury that tears the skin. That is when you will be thankful that your body can clot as quickly as it does.
- Blackberries are also a potent source of This is another essential nutrient that doesn’t get as much attention as vitamin A or vitamin E. Still, it is always working in the background, ensuring that your skeletal system is robust and your immune system is functioning normally.
The body also requires manganese to form collage usually. Think of collagen as the primary building block of the skin. Without it, there is no skin, and you can’t regenerate skin, so you look healthy until your fifties. Collage is also a necessary element in the formation or degeneration of joint tissue. As we age, our joints become more worn, and it is your job to guarantee that your diet can supply the trace nutrients that the body needs to continue functioning normally.
Blackberries rock because just one serving of this fruit already contains 0.9 mg of manganese, which is already 50% of the RDI for this nutrient. How is that for fabulous?
What Are the Benefits of Eating Blueberries?
- Blueberries and berries, in general, are great for weight loss diets. They’re sweet, and all, but the truth of the matter is they provide sweetness at little cost to your caloric intake.
So, if you are craving something sweet, it would be best to reach out to a cup of blueberries instead of a can of soda, as naturally occurring sugars do not count toward your free sugar allowance for the day.
Free sugar represents all the added sugar found in commercial food products and commercial meals, snacks, and beverages prepared in restaurants and outlets. Essentially, we want to track how much refined sugar and HFCS you are consuming per day.
Luckily, the World Health Organization does not count fruit sugars as free sugars. Calories are still calories, and fruit sugars rely on your carbohydrate intake for the day, just not the free sugar portion, which should be less than 10% of your entire diet. - If you need more fiber in your diet, blueberries also happen to provide four grams of dietary fiber for every serving. It is not as high as blackberries, but you are still getting a substantial amount of fiber in such a small serving. In contrast, you will not get the same fiber from eating a commercial pastry or a slice of cake. However, you can get up to a fifth of your required fiber intake with just one serving of blueberries.
- Blueberries are known for protecting the body from the harmful effects of LDL or low-density lipoproteins. Essentially, the bad cholesterol in your bloodstream has to be regulated. On top of your maintenance medication for cholesterol, you also have to manage your diet to better your cardiovascular system.
It is critical to change your diet if you already have signs of metabolic syndrome, and one of the earliest signs is having high LDL. Luckily, you will be able to make the proper adjustments easily by changing your diet.
Are Blackberries the Healthiest Berry?
Based on the nutrient profiles of both berries, we can say that blackberries have a slight edge over blueberries in terms of dietary fiber. If you need twice as much dietary fiber, head over to the blackberries side as this fruit provides two times more fiber per serving than blueberries. On the other hand, if you cannot find blackberries and only buy blueberries, blueberries are a worthy substitute.
