In 1874 Jasper Wyman founded a seafood canning company in his hometown of Milbridge, Maine. By the turn of the century he had shifted the focus of his enterprise to the Down East region's most abundant natural resource, the wild blueberry. Jasper acquired thousands of acres of blueberry land while building the company that bears his name and both the land and the company remains in his family to this day.
New Book Offers Health Strategies for the New Year
Blueberries
and other SuperFoods part of an integrated approach to lifelong
living.
In their new book SuperFoods HealthStyle, nationally renowned
authors Steven G. Pratt, M.D., and co-author Kathy Matthews
extol the powerful disease-fighting benefits of blueberries,
calling them the “absolute powerhouses in the world of
health-promoting foods.” Pratt and Matthews first identified
blueberries as one of 14 SuperFoods in their best-selling book
SuperFoods Rx. Now they have expanded their original list of SuperFoods and broadened the focus to include all aspects of
health promotion, including exercise, weight control, sleep and
stress management as well as nutrition, offering “proven
strategies for lifelong health.”
Dr. Pratt is an authority on the role of nutrition and lifestyle
in the prevention of disease and optimizing health, and he has
long been a booster of blueberries. Noting that blueberries
contain more antioxidants than other fruits, Pratt states,
“Blueberries are such powerful health promoters that if you ate
only three SuperFoods, blueberries, along with wild Alaskan
salmon and spinach, you would be ahead of the game.”
“The
most exciting news about blueberries,” says Pratt, “is their
effect on brain health.” Pratt cites studies showing that a
blueberry diet slowed and in some cases reversed deficits in
brain function, motor performance, and learning and memory in
older animals. Blueberries were more effective than either
strawberries or spinach in countering the effects of aging. In a
section on “How to avoid Alzheimer’s disease,” Pratt suggests
eating one cup of fresh or frozen blueberries daily.
“Blueberries are ‘brain berries’: They seem to have powerful
effects on the preservation of cognitive ability.”
The reason behind blueberries’ impressive health-promoting
capabilities is their rich supply of anthocyanins, powerful
antioxidants contained in the berries’ deep blue pigments.
Anthocyanins help neutralize the effects of free-radical damage
to cells and tissues — oxidative stress, which is linked to
cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease and a wide-range of
other age-related conditions. Blueberries also contain
pterostibene, a compound that may be able to lower cholesterol
as effectively as many drugs, contributing to cardiovascular
health.
Recognizing that “Wild blueberries have even more antioxidants
than commercial varieties,” Pratt recommends purchasing frozen
wild blueberries, which are available year-round. He notes
research showing that frozen berries provide all the nutritional
benefits of fresh.
Jasper Wyman & Son is the leading US grower, packer, and marketer
of wild blueberries and berry fruits flash-frozen, canned, and in juices.