London, Feb 9 (IANS) Blueberries, rich in anti-oxidants and vitamins, can alleviate and protect against intestinal inflammations, a new study says.
The protective effect is even better if the blueberries are eaten along with probiotics or health promoting bacteria.

Sweden’s Lund University Faculty of Engineering (LUFE) project originated as an attempt to see if various types of dietary fibre and probiotic bacteria, lactobacillus and bifidobacteria, can help prevent risk of colorectal cancer and intestinal inflammations like ulcerative colitis.

“But new knowledge of this field is also of interest to those who don’t believe they run the risk of developing any intestinal diseases,” explains Camilla Bränning, nutritionist and Åsa Håkansson, doctoral candidate in applied nutrition and food chemistry at Lund.

“In recent years the research world has been realising that our health is governed to a great extent by what happens in our large intestine,” explain Bränning and Håkansson, according to a Lund University release.

Researchers tested various types of diets of blueberry husks, rye bran and oat bran with or without a mixture of probiotic bacteria. The results showed that the protective effect of blueberries was reinforced if they were eaten together with probiotics.

“The probiotics proved to have a protective effect on the liver, an organ that is often negatively impacted by intestinal inflammations,” explains Håkansson.

Blueberries are rich in polyphenols, which have an antimicrobial and antioxidative effect.