An underrated berry has become the subject of high interest to scientists as a new study showed its potential game-changing weight loss benefits after just one week. Here’s what you need to know. A clinal trial recently published in the Journal of Nutrients discovered that the humble elderberry appears to offer benefits for gut and metabolic health, while delivering more efficient sugar processing and fat burning qualities. The good news is these elderberries, a small, dark purple berry, are grown all over the world and its juice is widely available. Elderberry’s prowess is owed to its high concentrations of plant compounds that are known as anthocyanins believe the experts.
“Elderberry is an underappreciated berry, commercially and nutritionally,” says the study’s corresponding author, Patrick Solverson, who is an assistant professor at the Washington State University Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine. “We’re now starting to recognize its value for human health, and the results are very exciting.”
How was the study carried out?
Eighteen overweight adults aged between 22 and 75 yrs were given either a daily 12-ounce (355ml) elderberry juice, or a similar looking placebo drink and later tested on a range of health indicators such as blood glucose and plasma and insulin levels, gut microbiota and weight changes.
What were the results?
After just one week, those who drank the elderberry juice benefitted from positive microbiota changes in addition to an average of 24% lower blood glucose levels and a 9% decrease in insulin levels. The elderberry drinkers also received significantly increased fat oxidation, breaking down fatty acids more readily.
“Food is medicine, and science is catching up to that popular wisdom,” comments Solverson. “This study contributes to a growing body of evidence that elderberry, which has been used as a folk remedy for centuries, has numerous benefits for metabolic as well as prebiotic health.”
While other more popular berries contain anthocyanins, the levels are often in less abundance. In fact, a person would need to consume more than three times the amount of blackberries to get the same anthocyanin content as elderberries.
With more than 70% of adults in the United States now overweight and 42% suffering with obesity, natural remedies are in high demand, so experts are now hoping to take their elderberry enlightenment to the next level and widen their studies with a view to providing an alternative to prescription weight loss medicines.
