"anthocyanins" news and stories

It's been known for quite some time that blueberries are high in antioxidants. Recently I learned that another blue food is also high in these healthful compounds: blue corn tortillas. Not only that, the pale blue-gray discs also have more protein and less starch than their white-corn cousins. All of this comes as very good news for me, considering I usually eat things like pork fried in lard betwixt my tortillas. Now all I need to do is convince some local taquerias to start offering blue tortillas.

Mexican and Venezuelan researchers recently published their findings on blue corn tortillas in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture. Since blue corn is so high in antioxidants, the scientists believe consuming it may help to fight colon cancer and other diseases. The high levels of antioxidants in blue corn result from pigments called anthocyanins. What I'd like to know is whether these guys did any research on the inky purple Peruvian beverage chicha morada made from, you guessed it, blue corn.

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I have lately been reading in-depth articles on research and development in food and beverage trade publication on beverage colors. Drinks come in myriad of shades of the rainbow, and more. From neon colors to pastels, earth tones and cola and root beer browns.

For many years artificial colors were in. They were easy to make and stable over long periods of time. Then there were all the scares with artificial dyes over the years, like cancer and allergies. Combined with today's health consciousness, this has led to the development of new, natural colors. You would think this was easy but it has been a struggle. Natural colors are difficult to make stable, so they don't change shades or fade with time. Now it looks like the color stability problem is a thing of the past.

A recent MSNBC story by dietitian Karen Collins explains why berries have recently been given 'superfood' status. Collins outlines berries' richness in antioxidants like vitamin C--a cup of strawberries has at least a whole RDA. She also touches on other cancer-inhibiting phytochemicals such as the anthocyanins found in red berries and pterostilbine, found in blueberries. The latter is similar to the often-hyped phytochemical found in grapes and red wine. Like and level-headed dietitian, Collins is quick to stress the importance of eating not just lots of berries, but a wide variety of fruits, vegetables and grains, all of which can provide phytochemicals that may work together to your benefit.

Researchers aren't exactly sure how or why, but recent studies have shown promising results for using black currants to stave off the onset of Alzheimer's. Black currants, boysenberries and blackberries get their dark colors from anthocyanins, a type of antioxidant flavonoid that seems to have protective effects on lab-cultured brain cells as well as cells taken from human brains. Researchers have reason to believe that similar effects could take place within the human body. According to press release from the publisher of The Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, British black currants are bred to be darker in color and therefore more potent with anthocyanins.