Berry Power

Never mind the java jolt – if you really want to power through the afternoon, try a bowl of blueberries, say researchers.

And we mean a bowl – not just a few stray berries in the name of decoration. Researchers from the UK’s Reading University say a large helping – 200g (or about 7 oz) – of the superfruit will supercharge your concentration and memory for up to five hours. In tests, volunteers who sipped a blueberry smoothie – as opposed to an alternative breakfast drink -- were the stars when it came to mid-afternoon mental tasks.

"After one hour there was little difference in the attention tests," Dr. Jeremy Spencer, the study’s lead author, told the UK's Daily Mail. "But after five hours people who didn't have the blueberry smoothies saw their performance fall by 15 to 20 percent."

Spencer and his team, who presented their results Thursday at the British Science Festival, think the blueberry boost is from the fruit's antioxidants, which kickstart the flow of blood and oxygen to the brain and keep the mind fresh.

For the test, Spencer recruited 40 volunteers aged 18 to 30 and 40 volunteers aged over 65. For the first round of tests, the volunteers got a breakfast of toast and marmalade, with a blueberry smoothie chaser made from 7 oz. of blueberries. An hour later, they took 45 minutes of computer-based mental tests, which measured their short-term memory and concentration. The tests were repeated four hours later (so, five hours after the smoothie.)

Two weeks later, the volunteers tried the same tests, this time after drinking a "control" smoothie with the same amount of calories and sugar but nary a berry. In tests an hour later, there was no difference in their mental acuity as compared with an hour after they had eaten blueberries in the earlier test. But in the tests four hours later, their performance dropped significantly. Two weeks earlier, powered by the berries, the volunteers’ concenration hadn't dipped at all.

Now that's some "berry" good news.

Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons.