Blueberries
Research reveals that there is a serious amount of interesting evidence to support eating a lot of blueberries—improved memory, reduced depression, prevention of diabetes and the formation of new neurons. There are nutrition scientists who have devoted their careers to studying blueberries.
They have found that rats who ate blueberries for two months showed improvements in working memory, did better than their peers at remembering how to navigate a water maze, became better at balancing on a narrow rod and walking on a rotating rod. And lest these findings be dismissed as a coincidence, researchers found blue anthocyanins—among the plant chemicals widely attributed with health benefits due to antioxidant properties—scattered throughout their cerebellum, cortex, hippocampus, and striatum.
Human studies have shown that blueberries lower blood pressure after eight weeks of daily ingestion and that children do better on cognitive tests after eating blueberries. In small trials, people who drank blueberry juice found a reduction in depressive symptoms, improved blood-sugar levels, and improvements in recalling words. Older adults who ate two cups of blueberries daily reportedly saw cognition and mobility improvements.
If any fruit is deserving of superfruit status, it is the blueberry. They are heroic. www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2017/11/blueberries/545840/
Recipe – Blueberry Apple Fold-Over Pie
Ingredients
1 cup Granny Smith apple, cored and thinly sliced
¼ cup coconut sugar
1 Tbs. water
1 tsp. fresh lemon juice
1 Tbs. whole wheat pasty flour, or flour of choice
¼ tsp. salt
1 Tbs. plant-based butter or coconut oil
½ tsp. vanilla flavoring
1 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen
2 pie crusts
2 baking sheets
Process
- In a saucepan, combine the apple, coconut sugar, water, and lemon juice.
- Cook over medium heat until bubbly. Cover, lower heat to low, cook 6-8 minutes, stirring often.
- In a bowl, mix flour, and salt. Stir into apple mixture until it thickens. Remove from heat; add butter or oil and vanilla. Fold blueberries into mixture. Let cool about 10 minutes.
- Lay one pie crust on a baking sheet, lay the other crust on a second baking sheet.
- Spoon half of filling onto center of one crust. Fold over pie crust to meet other edge. Press edges with fork tines. Cut a few small slits on top of crust. Repeat with the second crust.
- Bake at 375° for 25-35 minutes, until crust is golden brown. Remove from oven. Let cool. Cut into desired servings.