Superfruit Focus

I always keep my ears pricked up for news on emerging items of interest that might fit into the cool, hot—and growing—superfruit group. Along those lines, I was interested to hear about the increasing demand for some types of Aronia spp., otherwise known as chokeberries.

As noted in the above news item, products in Europe featuring the native North American fruit have catapulted from 2 in 1997 to 108 during 2007 (those numbers are 0 and 29 for North America … we tend to travel a bit in the wake of our European friends when it comes to health & wellness…). Super-high ORAC values—and the associated physiological impact on body-stressing free-radicals—are the key to this demand. It certainly isn’t due to the berries’ taste, which is reportedly quite tart and astringent (perhaps echoing this fruit’s common name…).

In other antioxidant news—and all things related to domestic superfruit—it looks like ARS has developed a new variety of cranberry that has higher levels of antioxidants and A-type proanthocyanidins renowned for their anti-UTI properties.

Certainly two fruits to keep an eye on. 

Well, tomorrow morning I bid adieu to Chicago’s veritable permafrost for a few days and head to Arizona's warmer climes for the Focus on the Future conference taking place this week. Of course, I’ll report on any interesting tidbits as I have time. Stay tuned.