Blueberries Help to Reduce Cholesterol Levels

Blueberries are rich in vitamin C, an important antioxidant, and previous studies have suggested the fruit has potent free radical scavenging activity.   Wallace H. Yokoyama, from the Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture (California, USA), and colleagues fed rations enhanced with blueberry peels and other blueberry-juice-processing leftovers (fruit skins and fibers) to laboratory hamsters.  The blueberry reduced total plasma cholesterol by 22 to 27%, and levels of VLDL (“bad”) cholesterol by 44%, among the animals fed the fruit products.  Explaining that: “Hepatic CYP7A1 expression was up-regulated by [a blueberry] diet,” but “no significant changes in adipocyte gene expression related to inflammatory markers were observed,” the researchers submit that: “These data suggest that hepatic modulation of bile acid and cholesterol synthesis primarily contributes to the cholesterol-lowering effect of blueberry byproducts.”