From the berry patch to a smoothie, how many nutrients are lost?

[Follow the Wikipedia links]

This is the 7th of 8 essays on new berry science reported at the

2nd International Symposium on Berry Health Benefits,

Oregon State University, Corvallis

June 11-12, 2007

First a review of background ...

A pandemic of poor diets and lifestyle practices linked to rising rates of obesity, diabetes, cancer, chronic inflammation, pain and cardiovascular diseases

has swept across the world in recent decades.

Recognizing the urgent need to redirect consumer attention toward healthier eating habits and lifestyles, various scientific and consumer organizations have released advisories

for eating higher amounts of whole natural foods, including color-rich plants like berries.

Health Power of Pigments

Discussed previously from the Berry Doctor's Journal

Every one of 27 presentations at the Oregon Berry Health Benefits Symposium

discussed the potential health values of anthocyanins.

What are anthocyanins?

Anthocyanins (from Greek: anthos = flower + kyanos = blue) are water-soluble

pigments that appear in a general range of red to blue, according to acidity.

In response to ripening maturity and environmental stressors,

they are synthesized by plants and bacteria, occurring in all tissues of higher plants,

providing color in leaves, stems, roots, flowers, and fruits.

Read other background about anthocyanins in this series

Part 1 - Obesity and diabetes

Part 2 - Cancer

Part 3 - Bacterial Infections

Part 4 - Brain Health

Part 5 - Inflammation

Part 6 - Health claims

These reports of the berry research symposium are evidence

that top, high-quality science is being applied to understanding

health properties of berries.

Strawberries, one of the most processed of berries.

What happens to anthocyanin contents?

What happens to anthocyanins and other berry nutrients

when the fruit is processed into a juice, smoothie, jam or flavoring?

Preservation of berry anthocyanins during processing was a research area summarized at the Symposium by L. Howard and colleagues (University of Arkansas, USDA-ARS).

Conclusions

• freezing freshly-harvested berries followed by frozen storage preserves anthocyanins most effectively

• major anthocyanin losses occur from heat processing needed to make juices or pasteurization of purées and canned products

• during heating, anthocyanins bind together into long chemical chains that actually make berry colors brighter but lower individual anthocyanin contents

• presscake (residual pomace after juicing), often discussed as a valuable but undeveloped biomaterial for functional foods and nutraceuticals, retained significant anthocyanin levels, so offers potential to be exploited for retrieving anthocyanins from berry pomace that usually is discarded as waste

From other research showing processing affects on berry nutrients

• overall antioxidant content decreases during pasteurization or cooking

• however, as shown for tomato (botanically a berry), carotenoid levels increase after heating, possibly due to liberation of pigments from the tomato skin (read the abstract of this research) -- read the Berry Doctor's essay on carotenoids here

• vitamin C levels decrease during heating

• domestic processing (involving heat) into jams or pies causes losses in anthocyanins and other berry pigments by amounts of 15-50 %

• back to the strawberry: making juice, nectar, wine or purée caused decreases in levels of total phenolics (antioxidant pigments) and vitamin C -- here's the abstract

Processing of a berry - first into a juice, then into this powder - affects antioxidant levels.

QUIZ: What berry do you know that becomes orange when it's made into this juice powder?

(answer in 2 weeks)

From The World's Healthiest Foods

Read the article (click!) on what happens to nutrients

when common foods are cooked

Highlights

• the traditional rules about heat, water, time, and nutrient loss are all true. The longer a food is exposed to heat, the greater the nutrient loss.

• hot water (boiling) creates more nutrient loss than steaming

• steaming or minimal cooking of vegetables can cause nutrient losses of only 15%

• over-cooking, as may occur during long-term heating in a cafeteria, may cause

         nutrient losses of up to 80%

• the slight loss of nutrients in steaming may actually provide benefits, such as improved digestibility and conversion of nutrients into forms more easily absorbed

Essay series from the

2007 Symposium on Berry Health Benefits

1. Obesity and Diabetes
2. Cancer
3. Bacterial Infections
4. Brain Health
5. Inflammation
6. Interpreting Anti-Disease Benefits from Preliminary Research
7. Processing and Storage Effects on Nutrients (Today)
8. A Dietary Guide

ARCHIVES (click!)

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Dr. Paul
The Berry Doctor

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