Blueberries

I love blueberries and many other berries. This is one of my favourite times of year with blueberries, strawberries, raspberries and blackberries converging. Apparently others do too!

Research, mostly on rats, shows that blueberries carry a cornucopia of compounds that benefit not only vision but also cardiovascular health, memory, and balance-that they may play a role in reducing cell growth and division in cancerous tumours. The benefits keep being discovered. Rutgers has a University Center for Cranberry and Blueberry research.

Blueberries are Canada's largest fruit export, worth $323 million last year. The US gets most of the blueberries with Japan not far behind the second largest importer. More than half the country's fruit growing area is devoted to them. Land area devoted to cultivating berries increased 40 per cent in a 12-month period between 2006 and 2007.

It looks like I won't have to worry about a blueberry shortage since cultivation is increasing and positive reasons for eating this wonder fruit keep being discovered.