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A DAILY serving of blueberries keeps you young, at least if you鈥檙e a rat.
Animals that ate the fruit recovered some of the coordination normally lost with
old age.

James Joseph of Tufts University in Boston was studying antioxidant-rich
foods like strawberries, spinach and blueberries. Antioxidants reverse some
memory loss linked to old age, probably by mopping up free radicals in the
brain.

For eight weeks, Joseph fed supplements of strawberries, spinach or
blueberries to three groups of 19-month-old rats鈥攖he equivalent of 60 to
65 years old for humans. He then assessed their memories and mobility in
standard tests.

All the rats showed improvements in memory compared with rats that were not
given antioxidant-rich food to eat. Surprisingly, the rats fed with blueberries
also had better balance and coordination in tasks such as running along a rod
(The Journal of Neuroscience, vol 19, p 8114).

Joseph suspects that the extra coordination may be due to substances in
blueberries called polyphenolics. There is evidence that some of these improve
the way neurons signal to each other and also reduce inflammation in the brain
linked to age.

Molly Wagster, from the National Institute on Aging near Washington DC, says:
鈥淚t may have implications not only for normal cognitive motor function, but also
for diseases like Alzheimer鈥檚.鈥�