ITHACA, N.Y.—Rui Hai Liu, MD, of Cornell University, has developed cellular antioxidant activity assay testing to measure how cells absorb antioxidants from foods. His findings on 25 commonly eaten fruits suggest that some offer more health benefits than others.
“Wild blueberry, raspberry and blueberry had lower cellular antioxidant qualities, indicating that relative to the other fruits, the phenolic antioxidants in these fruits are taken up less well by the cells or bound less tightly to the cell membrane,” he said. "The antioxidant qualities of pomegranate, blackberry, cranberry, apple, peach, red grape and pear were higher, suggesting their phenolics were more closely associated with the cells than those from other fruits."
In other words, while blueberries contain many antioxidants, cells may not absorb them, so blackberries provide greater benefit. Blackberries were second only to pomegranate in the most important part of the testing, which measured how well human cells absorbed nutrients from fruits.
