Eating a balanced nutritious diet is one of the best things you can do to lead a healthy life. Start this New Year with a berry healthy eating plan to leave you feeling great inside and out.

Eating berries; and in particular eating blueberries is one of the easiest ways to add nutrients to your diet and give yourself a health boost during the winter months. All fresh berries are naturally low in calories, fat, saturates and salt, and are free from added sugar and artificial ingredients. Like most fruit and vegetables, they also add fibre to our diet and can help to boost our intake of antioxidants, including vitamin C.

Berries are the ultimate fast food, there’s no fiddly peeling or chopping – the only preparation they need is a quick wash. There’s no wastage either – pretty much every mouthful that’s bought can be eaten. Berries are also readily available all year round. But best of all, they’re juicy, refreshing and bursting with flavour.

Not convinced? Then check out some of these health reasons for adding berries to your diet…

Berries are low in calories

Berries are a great choice if you want to lose weight, as they’re all low in calories. In fact, berries tend to be lower in calories than many other fruits. For example, an 80g serving of raspberries or blackberries contains just 20 calories, while the same sized serving of strawberries contains 22 calories, and blueberries, 24 calories. In contrast, an apple contains around 50 calories, an orange around 60 calories and a small banana around 75 calories.

Berries are low in fat

For a healthy heart, it’s important for most of us to eat less fat, especially saturated fat. Berries are naturally low in fat – an 80g serving typically contains less than 0.2g fat – and are free from saturated fat. This makes berries a heart-healthy choice.

Berries contribute to 5-a-day

Health experts recommend that to stay healthy, everyone should eat at least five portions of fruit and vegetables each day, preferably choosing a variety of different fruits and vegetables to get a good mix of nutrients. An 80g serving of blueberries counts as one portion. You don’t need to weigh berries though to make sure you’re getting one portion. Just use this simple guide:

An 80g serving of blueberries is 2 handfuls of blueberries (4 heaped tablespoons)

Berries boost our fluid intake

Water is essential for life so it’s no surprise that when we get dehydrated our health can suffer and we’re more likely to suffer with tiredness, poor concentration and headaches. Staying hydrated is therefore important if we want to stay healthy. The easiest way to do this is to drink plenty of fluids such as water regularly throughout the day but most of us forget that some foods like berries can also contribute to our fluid intake. In fact, berries contain around 85-90% water. This not only makes them really juicy, but also helps to boost our intake of water in a delicious, refreshing way.

Berries are a source of vitamin C

Vitamin C has many important roles in the body. It’s needed to keep skin, bones, cartilage and teeth healthy and helps heal wounds and fight infection. Vitamin C also helps the body to absorb iron and it’s a powerful antioxidant, so may help to protect against free radicals, which can damage cells. So with all these benefits, it’s good to know that berries are packed with this nutrient. An 80g serving of blackberries provides a fifth of the recommended daily allowance (RDA) of vitamin C for adults, while the same sized serving of blueberries provides 23% of the RDA and raspberries, 43% of the RDA. But it’s strawberries that really stand out. An 80g serving provides more than 100% of the RDA – that means eating just 7 strawberries will give you all the vitamin C you need for the day!

Berries contain no added sugar

They might taste sweet, but blueberries, get all their sweetness from naturally occurring sugars. Even then, compared to many other fruits, berries actually contain fewer natural sugars. For example, an 80g serving of raspberries contains less than 4g sugars. In contrast, an apple contains around 12g sugars, a peach contains 8g sugars and a small banana contains 17g sugars. Even half a grapefruit contains more than 5g sugars!

Berries are packed with antioxidants

Research shows that berries are a good source of antioxidants, particularly a group called flavonoids1. In fact, berries are known to have a high Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity (ORAC) – in other words, they have a lot of antioxidant activity2. Better still, blueberries, have a much higher ORAC value than many other fruits and vegetables, including apples, apricots, grapes, kiwi fruit, mango, melon, oranges, asparagus, green beans, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, onions, peppers, rocket, spinach, sweet potatoes and tomatoes. This indicates that berries have more antioxidant activity. This is great news as antioxidants help to mop up an excess of free radicals, molecules that have the potential to damage cells.

Try this delicious blueberry recipe;

Blueberry Muffins

Prep 15 mins – Cook 20-25 mins

Ingredients

• 120g unsalted butter
• 225g caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 285g plain flower
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp powdered cinnamon
• 100ml soured cream
• Finely grated zest of lemon
• 125g blueberries

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180 C/350 F/ Gas 4, and line a 12-hole muffin tray or individual metal dariole moulds with greaseproof paper, or butter and flour them.
2. Beat the butter and sugar until fluffy and white, then add the egg little by little.
3. Sift the flour, baking powder and cinnamon into the egg mixture, then beat in the cream and lemon zest. Fold the blueberries in lightly. Divide the mixture between the muffin trays.
4. Bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes.