Purple food for runners

Blackberry picking in late summer

Blackberries contain an antioxidant known as ellagic acid and are among the top ten foods that carry the most antioxidants. Cooking does not appear to destroy ellagic acid so even jams may give health benefits. Some of the benefits are:

Strengthening of blood vessels. With healthy blood vessels, you can prevent heart disease, arteries clogging and strengthen your eyesight as the vessels aound the eyes will be more healthy.

 Blackberries are low in calories and high in fibre. Fibre promotes healthy digestion, eliminates cholesterol and lowers the risk of developing certain diseases such as heart disease and diabetes. Studies have also found that fibre aids weight loss and weight management .

Ellagic acid is known to prevent cancer and protect and repair skin damage cause by the sun's ultraviolet rays.

Blackberries are high in vitamin C. The body uses vitamin C to strengthen the immune system and fight free radicals. Vitamin C also aids wound healing, and may actually lessen the appearance of wrinkles.

Blackberries have been shown to reduce inflammation. This is great news for runners who have a tendency to over do their training, break blood vessels and experience muscle soreness!

Blackberries are a good source of vitamin K. Vitamin K is used by the body for the normal clotting of blood and to aid the absorption of calcium.

Blackberries are also a good source of potassium. Potassium functions as an electrolyte and is essential for the conversion of blood sugar into glycogen. Glycogen is the stored form of blood sugar found in the muscles and liver and is essential for endurance running!

Purple fruit and vegetables have been in the news a lot over the last couple of months. Recently I interviewed Stephen Bailey from Exeter University who had looked at the benefits of nitric oxide, found in beetroot, on runners and there has been recent research into the benefits of blackcurrant juice which has shown it can 'help prevent the aches and pains of exercise'.

The experiment, led by Dr Roger Hurst at New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research, monitored the impact of blackcurrant extract on 10 untrained volunteers. As a part of the study, the participants took a tablet daily containing the equivalent of one or two ounces of berries before and after moderate exercise schedule for a period of three weeks. The investigators then measured the biochemical indicators of the subjects to evaluate the effect of taking the blackcurrant extract capsules. It was noted that participants who took the blackcurrant pill had less signs of oxidative stress and muscle damage as opposed to those who did not take the tablet. In addition, their bodies also exhibited less signs of inflammation.

Past studies have shown that compounds in blackcurrants reduced inflammation in muscles caused by typing repetitively on a computer keyboard.

Since, it is an early stage research the experts have yet to determine exactly what blackcurrant compound led to the potential benefit. However, they believe vitamin C is not the miracle ingredient because the pill contained very low levels of the vitamin. Dr Hurst said, “We're looking more closely instead at the role of flavonoids within the fruit. “These include anthocyanins, the compounds that gives blackcurrants their brilliant purple colour.”

Good advice would be to eat as much purple fruit and vegetable as possible as powerful antioxidant pigments such as anthocyanin found in berries and betalain found in beetroot can make a runners training and racing much more fruitful!

I'm off now for some blackcurrant jam on toast but before I go I would like to share a poem with you...I'll think of this when I'm blackberry picking on Saturday morning and heed the warning not to take more than I've bargained for!

Blackberry Picking by  Seamus Heaney.

Late August, given heavy rain and sun

For a full week, the blackberries would ripen.

At first, just one, a glossy purple clot

Among others, red, green, hard as a knot.

You ate that first one and its flesh was sweet

Like thickened wine: summer's blood was in it

Leaving stains upon the tongue and lust for

Picking. Then red ones inked up and that hunger

Sent us out with milk cans, pea tins, jam-pots

Where briars scratched and wet grass bleached our boots.

Round hayfields, cornfields and potato-drills

We trekked and picked until the cans were full,

Until the tinkling bottom had been covered

With green ones, and on top big dark blobs burned

Like a plate of eyes.

Our hands were peppered

With thorn pricks, our palms sticky as

Bluebeard's. We hoarded the fresh berries in the byre.

But when the bath was filled we found a fur,

A rat-grey fungus, glutting on our cache.

The juice was stinking too.Once off the bush

The fruit fermented, the sweet flesh would turn sour.

I always felt like crying. It wasn't fair

That all the lovely canfuls smelt of rot.

Each year I hoped they'd keep, knew they would not.