pnw blackberry magic

fountain of youth

Good morning everyone.

Today I’m writing from back home in the glorious PNW, where I’ll be spending a good portion of my summer. Yesterday afternoon was spent picking blackberries with my nieces, Jane (2) and Lisa (1), who—let’s be honest—were terrible at their jobs. I picked, they ate. Very frustrating.

I want to take a moment to highlight the many benefits of blackberries. Especially, as the Flo Rida song goes, the wild ones. Compared to their commercially grown cousins, wild blackberries pack up to 8 times more anthocyanins—powerful antioxidants that do more hard work than Diddy’s legal team.

Blood pressure and my friend Nigel: One study found that higher volumes of anthocyanins in the diet significantly improved blood pressure. When I read this exciting news, I immediately thought of my friend who—for anonymity’s sake—we’ll call Nigel.

Nigel is a 28-year-old fit bro who recently went in for a check-up. He felt great. Everything looked great. Except: one high blood pressure reading. And from that single number, his doctor prescribed blood pressure meds.

Nigel, being the critical thinker he is, decided to hold off.
“I’m not starting a life-long drug in my twenties after one reading,” he told me.

Rather than taking a holistic, investigative approach—like asking what might be causing high blood pressure in a healthy young man (stress? sleep? magnesium deficiency?)—the doctor jumped straight to: “load him up with the Benazepril!”

Never mind that the side effects of this “precautionary” med include fatigue, dizziness, and sexual dysfunction.

Since then, Nigel’s been checking his blood pressure regularly, and surprise: that reading was a fluke. He’s consistently clocking in around 120/80. But the fact that a single reading nearly launched him into a lifelong pharmaceutical dependency is, frankly, disturbing.

Nigel: You know who you are. Keep crushing it. And maybe throw in some wild blackberries while you’re at it.

Other benefits of wild blackberries and anthocyanins include the prevention of age-related diseases:

• Cardiovascular disease

• Cancers

• Neurodegenerative diseases

• Eye-related diseases

So essentially, what I’m saying is this: wild blackberries are the fountain of youth. Around the PNW, they’re omnipresent this time of year. So eat them up. Generously. Joyfully. With as little self-control as Lisa and Jane.