Acai berries and mangosteen get all the praise in antioxidant wellness, but another superfood, used by Native Americans for generations, is now set to take the spotlight. Less expensive and easier to eat, aronia berries are packed with antioxidants and could give your environmental wellness a real boost.
Mae’s Health & Wellness are now producing a line of aronia berry products, and Tammy Ross, director of marketing for Westin Foods, who owns Mae’s Health & Wellness, explained why: ‘It’s got kind of an astringent taste to it. It’s very naturally tart,’ she said. ‘It’s very similar in taste to a wine grape. What you’re tasting in that tartness is actually very good for you — a type of an antioxidant and type of a compound that can be found in wine and can also be found in tea.’
Many aspects of daily living create cell-damaging free radicals in your body. Whether it’s due to stress, environmental pollution, x-rays, or even exercise, the natural blend of polyphenolic antioxidants found in aronia berries combat free radicals, as well as diseases caused by oxidative stress such as cardiovascular disease, chronic inflammation, and certain types of cancer. The USDA reports that aronia berries have twice as much antioxidant power as cranberries and four times as much as pomegranates, strawberries, goji berries, and blueberries.
Brett Blumenthal, author of 52 Small Changes: One Year to a Happier, Healthier You, said ‘I think generally speaking over the last five years or so our culture has become more and more educated about nutrition. We understand that antioxidants help fight off the free radicals that are all over. They’re in the air we breathe, they’re in the food we eat, and we really can’t avoid them.’
The dark-purple clusters of aronia berries grow wild on bushes in North America, with several round fruit clumped together on rosy-red stems. Their tart taste has led to the nickname ‘chokeberries,’ but Ross commented that this hasn’t stopped Native Americans from benefitting from their wellbeing-enhancing properties as part of their diet, as preservatives for their meat, and also for dying cloth.
Aronia berries are available as whole fruit, whereas trendy acai berries are usually found mixed into other products or in powdered supplement form. They’re available online, and at almost half the price of goji berries, and nearly a fifth of the price of dried wild blueberries. You can use your aronia berries to make wine, jam, syrups, and tea, or else add them into fresh sauces or on top of your breakfast muffins.
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