The summer berry season for 2013 has been a success.

The berry season varies from year to year, there are many variables that can affect the berry flowering, fruit growing and the harvest.  Some of the most obvious are; late frost that destroys the flowers, lack of bees and insects  to pollinate the berry plants, and the lack of rain during the summer growing season.  The berries can also vary in size from year to year, this year has been a good year in most parts.

See pictures of the current berry season.  Summer berry season 2013.

Nordic Summer berry season starts with wild strawberries and cultures strawberries being harvested first, then comes the cloud berries in the sub-arctic and arctic regions.  Red and black currants usually ripen before the Bilberries and raspberries follow next.  The timing does vary from year to year, the ripening of the berries may be 4-6 weeks either way (before/after) from the previous year.

Bilberries are fantastic for their natural trace elements.

Material composition of the berries

100 g of fresh berries is:
– Protein 0.67 g
– Vitamin A (RE) 7.9 lg
– Vitamin B1 0.03 mg
– Vitamin B2 0.03 mg
– Vitamin B3 0.6 mg of niasiiniekvivalentti
– Vitamin B5 or pantothenic acid 0.16 mg
– Vitamin B6 0.06 mg
– Vitamin C 44 mg
– Vitamin E (alpha-DB) 1.88 mg
– Vitamin H or biotin, 1.1 ¶ g
– Phosphorus 20 mg
– 100 mg of potassium
– Calcium 20 mg
– Cobalt <0.5 lg
– Chrome 2 lg
– Copper 78 lg
– Magnesium 9.1 mg
– Manganese 4.6 mg
– Molybdenum <10 g
– Silicon 0.5 mg
– 0.56 mg of iron
– 13 mg of sulfur
– Zinc 0.15 mg

As can be seen, the blueberry has a lot of different trace elements.
Bilberry berries contain very little fruit acids. They have ample A and B vitamin, manganese, fiber and flavonoids. They are also good as vitamin C, magnesium, and calcium sources. Bilberry berries are also rich in sakkaroideja, or sugars. Flavonoids are so-called antioksidanttejai. Antioxidants are believed to be in many ways beneficial to human health, because they appear to prevent oxidative damage cells in the body. Laboratory studies of antioxidants have been found, for example to restrain microbial activity, inflammatory reactions, blood clots, and some forms of cancer tumors.

Pictures of berries. West coast of Finland.

Berries contain the active ingredients are organic acids (about 1%, in particular malic acid), tanning types (less than 10%), catkin types tannins (0.8 to 6.7%), (cyanidin, dolphin, petunidin, malvidin), flavonoids, pectin, invert sugars, A and vitamin C, arbutin, hydroquinone and trace elements, especially manganese.

Carotenoids that affect positively the quality of life.

Bright colored fruit and vegetables in a diet have tremendous health benefits for the consumers.   The vast research done over many years on human health has yielded results that prove that the Carotenoids do positively affect the quality of life. Particularly in the following areas;
•    Cardiovascular system.
•    Immune system support.
•    Healthy Vision system.
•    Respiratory function system.

See a video for information on Antioxidants and video on The Good fats and The Bad fats here.