Berry healthy heart

Gather your berries for a longer life.

Here at Fruitfull HQ we love berries, in fact we eat them in our office every day. Both of our office fruit boxes contain a pint of berries and we know our customers just love having them in their offices too. We also love the amazing health benefits of fruit (it makes your more beautiful don’t you know), and we have been intrigued by the recent link between heart health and the regular consumption of berries.

Recent berry studies have shown that the phyto-chemicals or ‘polyphenolic compounds’ as our Chemistry graduate CEO calls them, found in berries have an amazing affect on the plaque build-up in the arteries of the heart. Several epidemiological studies have shown that a proper diet, in which plants provide the major portion of caloric intake, may actually reduce the development of certain diseases like cancer and atherosclerosis too.

People who ate more than three servings per week of berries during the study, had a 32 percent lower risk of having a heart attack, according to new research. The benefit was due to Flavonoids in the berries known as anthocyanins, which are antioxidants that give these fruits their characteristic colours.

Anthocyanins are known to benefit the endothelial lining of the circulatory system, possibly preventing plaque build-up in arteries as well as promoting healthy blood pressure. Other research has shown these antioxidants to protect against heart disease by reducing oxidative stress and inflammation, while enhancing capillary strength and inhibiting platelet formation.

[bctt tweet=”What did one strawberry say to the other strawberry? If you weren’t so sweet, we wouldn’t be in this jam! ” username=””]

Processed Foods Containing Anthocyanin-Rich Fruits May Not Have the Same Benefit

However, it was also found by scientists that the extraction of these chemicals into supplements, or processed foods and drinks, did not have the same effect as seen in the study. The chemicals had to be consumed from the fruit. That energy bar with added antioxidants, or that drink with blueberry extract, is really just a marketing gimmick. The story you’ve been fed about antioxidants being good for you because they stave off the buildup of toxic free radicals (which supposedly are a major cause of ageing and disease), that’s all marketing! The food industry uses the antioxidant rap, to guilt-trip gullible consumers into preferring, paying more for, and consuming more of the very foods and beverages that many of us are trying to cut back on. This is the well-studied health-halo effect whereby extraordinary nutritional claims have the effect of tricking people into making irrational food decisions.

[bctt tweet=”Many blueberry-flavoured processed foods do not contain any real blueberries.” username=””]

We just stick to good old fashioned fruit for all our snacking and antioxidant needs, and we’d love to send some fruit to your office too. We are offering 50% off a box of our fruit if you share this post with your friends on facebook. So hit the share button below or leave us a comment from your Vancouver office, and we’ll send you a discounted box of fruit and snacks with free delivery to keep your heart healthy. Stay fruitfull Vancouver.

About the Author

Fruitfull Offices

We serve Vancouver's offices with the highest quality fresh fruit, premium snacks & office supplies. Our mission is to improve the corporations we serve. We want our clients to be healthy, productive & successful.

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