Busting belly fat may be yet another of blueberries’ health benefits.

    A new study shows rats who ate a diet rich in blueberries lost abdominal fat -- the kind of fat linked to heart disease and diabetes -- as well as experienced other health benefits like lowered cholesterol and improved glucose control even if their diet wasn’t otherwise heart-healthy.

    "Some measurements were changed by blueberry even if the rats were on a high-fat diet," researcher E. Mitchell Seymour, MS, of the University of Michigan’s Cardioprotection Research Laboratory, says in a news release.

    Researchers say the results suggest that antioxidant-rich blueberries may change how the body stores and processes glucose or sugar for energy, thereby reducing the risk of both heart disease and diabetes.

    "The benefits of eating fruits and vegetables have been well researched, but our findings in regard to blueberries show the naturally occurring chemicals they contain, such as anthocyanins, show promise in mitigating these health conditions," researcher Steven Bolling, MD, of the University of Michigan, says in the release.

    In the study, presented at Experimental Biology 2009, researchers fed rats bred to become obese either a high-fat or low-fat diet enriched with whole blueberry powder or carbohydrates as 2% of their total diet.

    After 90 days, the rats fed blueberries had less abdominal fat, lower cholesterol, and improved glucose control and insulin sensitivity. The latter two factors are markers of how well the body processes sugar for energy and are related to diabetes risk.

    These health benefits of blueberries were evident in rats fed both high- and low-fat diets enriched with the blueberry powder. But the benefits were greatest among those who ate a low-fat diet.

    In addition to the other heart health benefits of blueberries, those fed the low-fat blueberry diet also lost body weight and fat mass compared to those on the high-fat diet.

    Although more research is needed to confirm these results in humans, a related study presented at the same conference showed that men with risk factors for heart disease who drank wild blueberry juice for three weeks seemed to experience slight improvements in glucose and insulin control.

    消除腹部脂肪可能并不是蓝莓的保健功能，因为新研究发现的摄入丰富蓝莓后的小鼠减去腹部的脂肪是一类与心脏病和糖尿病有关的脂肪。即使小鼠自身的饮食对于心脏并不健康，同时食用蓝莓也能降低胆固醇和促进对血糖控制。密西根大学心肌研究实验室的研究员E.Mitchell Seymour在新闻发布中提出，即使小鼠摄入高脂肪膳食，蓝莓也能改变一些心脏机能的测量结果。

    研究员认为其原因很可能是具有强抗氧化性的蓝莓能影响人体中糖类的能量代谢和贮藏，从而减低了患心脏病和糖尿病的危险。

    来自密西根大学的研究员Steven Bolling在另一新闻发布中提到，对于食用水果和蔬菜对人体健康带来的有利之处已经得到了广泛地深入研究，而我们对于蓝莓的研究旨在对其含有的天然化学成分分析，如蓝莓中的花青素能减轻心脏病和糖尿病等不利于健康的状况。

    2009年发表在《生物实验》的研究中，研究人员利用高脂肪和低脂肪的膳食把小鼠培育成肥胖体形,并分成四组，每两组分别加入质量为总摄入量2%的蓝莓粉和碳水化合物。90天以后，喂养了蓝莓的小鼠的腹部脂肪得到减少，胆固醇降低，血糖控制和胰岛素敏感性得到提高。

    后两个结果均影响体内糖类能量的代谢以及与患糖尿病的风险有关。在都加入了蓝莓粉的高脂肪和低脂肪膳食培育的小鼠身上证明了蓝莓的保健功能。

    而且，蓝莓的保健功效在低脂肪膳食的小鼠身上得到最大得体现。除了蓝莓对心脏健康的功能以外，均摄入了蓝莓粉的低脂肪膳食小鼠与高脂肪膳食小鼠相比，其体重和脂肪的减少更为明显。

    尽管蓝莓的这些保健功效仍需要进一步地在人体上进行研究才能得以证实，一个在同一会议中发表的相关研究表示，有患心脏病风险的人在饮用野生蓝莓汁三周后，其血糖和胰岛素的控制得到轻微的促进。