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Lee Swanson Research Update
Blueberry Extracts May Cut Food Intake, Reduce Obesity
April 2008
Rats fed extracts from blueberries gained up to 10% less body weight than their furry counterparts not consuming the extracts, according to joint research from the U.S. and New Zealand.
Lab animals fed the extracts also decreased their food intake by about eight percent, linked to a satiety effect-boosting the feeling of being full-report the researchers in the journal Food Chemistry.
"The results demonstrated for the first time that rats gavaged daily for six days with one milliliter of extract prepared from 'Maru' and 'Centurion' fruits consumed less food than their counterparts preloaded with the same volume of water," wrote the authors from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Massey University in New Zealand.
Dr. Abdul Molan and co-workers used water to obtain antioxidant-rich extracts from the blueberry cultivars Centurion and Maru. The extracts were then tube-fed to rats (gavaged) at a dose of one milliliter per day for six days. A group of rats were tube-fed only water as a control.
At the end of the study, the researchers report that blood antioxidant levels, measured using the ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) assay, were significantly increased in both groups fed the blueberry extracts (BBE), compared to the control animals.
The result indicated "that BBE may have the ability to elevate circulating antioxidant potentials in vivo," researchers said. In terms of satiating effect, the Maru cultivar was associated with an 8.6 percent decrease in food intake, while Centurion reduced food intake by 6.2 percent. Only the former cultivar's effect was "statistically significant," said the researchers.
The reduction in food intake had a knock-on effect to body weight gain, with rats tube-fed the Maru and Centurion extracts showing 9.2 and 5.3 percent less gain than control rats, respectively.
"The ability of BBE to reduce the food intake coupled with the decrease in body weight gain compared with their counterparts given water (control group), suggests that BBE may be a good satiety inducer and weight management modulator," wrote Molan.
Food Chemistry 107(3):1039-1044, 2008.
