Good for the berries!

Long before the arrival of winter, black bears in the forest spend their days consuming everything and everything they can get their fangs into. Bears spend the winter eating, eating, and more eating in order to gain the most weight possible; when the weather turns cold, they seek a warm location to cuddle up and sleep the winter away.

Bears’ habits may not appear to be something you should try to emulate, but that is not the case. For one thing, physicians are always admonishing us humans about the dangers of overindulging and the dangers of wasting our time sitting around doing absolutely nothing.

However, there is one aspect of the black bear’s routines that you should aim to replicate since it is beneficial to your health in the long run.

Black bears consume large quantities of berries, including a wide variety of types such as raspberries, strawberries, and blueberries.

Berries are high in natural sugars and have delicious flavors. Berries, in contrast to many other foods that are really nutritious but do not taste good, are delicious.

And, in contrast to many other foods that are delicious but are not healthy for you, berries are among the healthiest foods you can consume, according to the USDA.

In fact, it has only been within the past decade that experts have begun to pay significant attention to the health advantages of fruits and vegetables. And what researchers are discovering about the health advantages of berries has a great deal of intriguing potential for use in human diets, according to the experts.

Around 10 years ago, Tufts University conducted one of the first significant trials on the health benefits of berries, and the results were rather positive.

The researchers were dealing with a group of elderly rats at the time. They gave them a variety of different meals to see what kind of impact it would have. Strawberries, blueberries, and spinach were among the items that were put through the test.

Now, in terms of “rat years,” these rodents were rather elderly by today’s standards. In reality, their age was around 70 years old, which was comparable to that of humans.

Given that all of the meals that the scientists examined were very rich in beneficial antioxidants, the scientists wanted to investigate whether any of these foods might help to improve the physical and mental capacities of these elderly rats.

The researchers discovered that, although some of these meals seemed to provide some antioxidant protection, the rats that had been given blueberries were the only ones that truly showed an improvement in their antioxidant capacity.

It was discovered that the rats that had been given blueberries were able to function at levels comparable to considerably younger animals!

After discovering this remarkable discovery, the scientists set out to discover exactly what it was in the blueberries that was causing this really positive impact.

It was discovered that the pigments found in the skin of the blueberries were the molecules responsible for making these aging rats seem intellectually younger and more perky than they really were.

Fruits and vegetables rich in antioxidants, such as ripe berries, contain chemicals that are responsible for their vibrant hues in the first place. Antioxidants, on the other hand, are molecules that aid in the repair of some of the damage that occurs to our body cells on a daily basis.

Scientists have found that the darker the fruit, the greater the number of health advantages it provides! Eating two-thirds of a cup of blueberries will provide you with as much antioxidant protection as eating five servings of apples or butternut squash would.

It is believed that the dark pigments in these berries provide protection against cardiovascular disease, degenerative eye disease such as cataracts, and may even be beneficial in the prevention of certain malignancies and bladder infections.

If the promising findings of the rat research are confirmed in human trials, it may be possible that the substances found in these black berries might help shield brain cells from the degenerative disorders associated with aging as well.

Eat your berries fresh, frozen, or dried, and you’ll benefit from their powerful antioxidant protection.

Consume berries raw, include them in your favorite cereals, or prepare a smoothie drink by mixing different berries and fruits together with milk and yoghurt. Make use of your imagination to discover new ways to incorporate berries into your favorite meals.

Blueberries are accessible year-round throughout North America, both fresh and frozen, depending on the region. If you can’t get your hands on fresh berries, dried berries are also a good alternative since they contain very high concentrations of the beneficial antioxidants.

You may use other fruits and berries with extremely dark red or dark purple hues if you reside in an area where blueberries are not readily accessible.

Pomegranates, bilberries, cherries, black raspberries, saskatoons, and serviceberries are just a few of the foods that contain high quantities of these very important dark pigments. These meals have advantages that are comparable to those provided by blueberries.

Decide whether you want to incorporate at least one bear habit into your lifestyle– and whether you want to eat berries on a regular basis!