From now on…Blueberries for breakfast.
Blueberries are incredible brain foods we can eat for breakfast that will be eneficial to our brains as well as keep us going to mid morning snack or to an early lunch. 
Did you add some blueberries to your oatmeal this morning?
Right off the bat, know eating fresh fruits and vegetables not only slows brain aging but also helps—aids in improving memory and cognition skills. Let’s explore our first ingredient: anthocyanin. While many foods contain anthocyanin, blueberries have more anthocyanin than most foods.
Here along the gulf coast, early June has the blueberrys popping out on my Dad’s blueberry bushes. After a couple of hours picking together—picking at each other in fun family bonding conversation and also picking berries– we will cull and freeze the berries, having a nice supply to last throughout the year because for the brain, blueberries are a godsend.
Anthocyanin is a natural pigment or flavonoid in fruits and vegetables responsible for purple flesh. There is power in fresh purple foods such as black berries, plums, grapes, eggplant, black beans, black rice, but blueberries take the cake with the highest percentage of saturation of this natural occurring pigment. And it is just not purple. Anthocyanin is also responsible for red to blue pigments found in cherries, currents, pomegranates, red cabbage and kidney beans. A trace can also be found in red onion and red skinned peaches.
Over 30 proven scientific studies since 2007 overcrowded my research after I first learned the effect of anthocyanin. But the most notable was a major breakthrough from a series of studies at the Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University in Boston. They found blueberry extract, specifically high concentration of anthocyanin, was highly effective in sustaining and improving the balance of chemicals found in synapses.
Synapses are connections made between brain neurons (brain nerve cells) which tend to shrink and die off when not properly ‘exercised’; they become weighted down and not in balance.
The section of the brain to dramatically experience imbalanced synapses is the hippocampus, the area where new memories are created and temporarily stored. These new memories desperately need synapses or connections to older cells.
Having synapses or cell connectors linking new brain cells to older brain cells stream lines, eases and straightens our thought processes, smoothes our flow of thoughts to vocal communication—point blank to efficiently remember and NOT have senior moments.
More developments from this Tufts’ study show extract from blueberries, as well as other purple foods, builds new levels of much needed vitamins and micronutrients in the hippocampus which greatly helps synapse formation.
This series also found blueberry extract improved subconscious remembering (tying shoelaces, lift your leg here comes a curb, etc.) which helps elders with coordination and balance.
Blueberries are a great brain food.
But we shouldn’t wait till our thoughts are jumbled and we are having trouble speaking, we shouldn’t wait till we are on the cusp of dementia before we start to seriously consume blueberries. We need to eat clean, right and smart NOW to build a reserve and foundation of productivity so to fight brain aging before a brain disease, dementia, takes form. It takes 10 to 15 years for dementia to formulate in our brain before symptoms ever occur!
Incorporate purple foods into your diet, plan on blueberries everyday for breakfast from now on.
So how about tomorrow? What’s for breakfast?
