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All Berries Are NOT Created Equal

In the media and product advertising, we often hear generalized claims that berries are high-nutrient foods across all species.

But Mother Nature loves variety and has not made all berries equally nutritious.

It's possible, for example, to select berries for your diet having high levels specifically of such nutrients as

dietary fiber
protein
vitamin A (from pro-vitamin A carotenoids)
vitamin C
vitamin E (from edible seeds or pulp oil)
B vitamins (a complex of 8 vitamins)
vitamin K
individual dietary minerals
phytosterols
omega fats

Let's have a look across different common berries and their respective nutrients -- (except for goji) the data come from Nutrition Facts -- click!, an excellent resource for nutrient education using the Nutrient Data Tables of the US Department of Agriculture.

"x" is indicated only if the berry has 'good' (10-20% of Daily Value per serving) and "xx" indicates 'excellent' (>20% DV) levels

Berries	Dietary fiber	Protein	Carotenoids (vitamin A)	Vitamin C	Vitamin K	Minerals	Phytosterols	Omega fats

Blackberry	xx	x	in seeds	xx	xx	xx	low/absent	in seeds
Blueberry	x	low/absent	low/absent	x	xx	x	low/absent	in seeds
Cranberry	xx	x	low/absent	xx	low/absent	x	low/absent	in seeds
Red grape	low/absent	low/absent	low/absent	low/absent	x	x	low/absent	in seeds
Red raspberry	xx	x	in seeds	xx	xx	x	in seeds	in seeds
Strawberry	x	low/absent	low/absent	xx	low/absent	x	x	in seeds
Goji (wolfberry)	xx	xx	xx	xx	no evidence	xx	x	in seeds

Summary

Rubus berries (blackberries, raspberries) are excellent sources of dietary fiber, vitamins C and K and some dietary minerals like manganese and copper
Although very popular, Vaccinium berries (blueberries, cranberries) are exceptional only for select nutrients, generally having modest nutrient levels
Red grapes, one of the most popular fresh fruits in the world, are known for their generally low nutrient value (high only in vitamin K and manganese); this conclusion, however, does not address the importance of red grapes for high anthocyanin and resveratrol contents
Strawberries are a good general source of many nutrients
Goji berries (wolfberry) are a high nutrient source generally

Blackberries, blueberries and red raspberries are good-excellent

sources of vitamins C, E (in seeds, if chewed) and K

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Twitter for Superfruits News

We're starting a new online update feature using Twitter, a free micro-blogging service where we can periodically broadcast news updates on berries and superfruits.

Twitter is simply a "short message service" (SMS), just 140 characters for quickly broadcasting a message to our educational network of subscribers for the Berry Doctor's Journal. SMS is the same technology as cell phone texting, short messages being used by over 2 billion people. It's the fastest growing network service on the internet.

And you can reply using Twitter to stimulate a conversation or follow-up question.

To give Twitter a try and receive these news capsules -- even on your cell phone! -- go to Twitter.com and sign up with your own name or handle.

Then visit twitter.com/superfruitsbook where you need to click on "Follow" to be linked into Berry Doctor "tweets" on superfruit news.