What About Blueberries? I Couldn't Find Much On This In Relation To Peating

[I_am]

I know to avoid seedy fruits, which are most berries. However Blueberries don't seem to have seeds as far as I can tell.

Does anyone know if they are Peat friendly. Man I hope they are, because I have an awesome Blueberry and Feta cheese snack every day.

Thanks everyone

 

[ecstatichamster]

i would think so.

And also, they don't easily rot. They really don't. Eating them is probably a good antibiotic for your gut.

 

[Agent207]

Blueberries are one of my favorite foods!!... along with pomegranates and macadamias. They're awesome.

 

[I_am]

Blueberries are one of my favorite foods!!... along with pomegranates and macadamias. They're awesome.

Yes, pom juice on ice is great on a hot summer day.

 

[Queequeg]

I'm eating a big bowl of frozen blueberries as I type this. get organic if you can. They spray the crap out of berries

 

[Badger]

I recall hearing on a nutritional news show several years ago that blueberries are very good for the brain when consumed without proteins.

 

[Constatine]

They seem to benefit the dopamine system: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0014488605002797 . Very healthy.

 

[Lilac]

Blueberries might be my favorite fruit, but... This past summer, I was buying those big boxes of plump blueberries at Costco and would eat large servings. I finally noticed that those big servings were constipating. Gave up the berries then and didn't have the problem. I thought it might be that the Costco berries were heavily sprayed with pesticides. But I tried the frozen wild, organic blueberries from Trader Joe's recently and saw the same pattern. So I think the seeds are the problem. Someday I will experiment by cooking and straining blueberries and see what happens.

 

[I_am]

I'm eating a big bowl of frozen blueberries as I type this. get organic if you can. They spray the crap out of berries

Yea this was my worry, I get ALOT of food from Aldi and I've had a hard time finding organic blueberries from there. SO I do get the conventional kind (which are like 1.50 a pint and sometimes just 1$!) and rinse them, I noticed many of the brands they carry come from Michigan, so I am hoping maybe there are stricter regulations since they are grown here in the US rather than like a South American country where the policies seem to be more lax/less monitored? I could be way off on this, I suppose I need to brush up on my information.

A pint of organic blueberries at other stores, run about 5$, which is just way too much when I need to get like 3 or 4 a week, sometimes more..

 

[Queequeg]

Yea this was my worry, I get ALOT of food from Aldi and I've had a hard time finding organic blueberries from there. SO I do get the conventional kind (which are like 1.50 a pint and sometimes just 1$!) and rinse them, I noticed many of the brands they carry come from Michigan, so I am hoping maybe there are stricter regulations since they are grown here in the US rather than like a South American country where the policies seem to be more lax/less monitored? I could be way off on this, I suppose I need to brush up on my information.

A pint of organic blueberries at other stores, run about 5$, which is just way too much when I need to get like 3 or 4 a week, sometimes more..

Look into frozen organic blueberries. I agree that the fresh stuff costs way too much.

 

[I_am]

Look into frozen organic blueberries. I agree that the fresh stuff costs way too much.

Thank you, I have had the one's from Aldi - they do have frozen Organic Blueberries, of which are acceptable. They have Organic frozen mixed fruit as well, with strawberries, mango, pineapple.

I am really impressed with their organic line of items, they have expanded it in the last year or so, just not with the fresh blueberries.

 

[Dragon]

I know to avoid seedy fruits, which are most berries.

huh? what? I never heard this before.

just did a forum-search too, on 'seedy fruits', and found only 2 hits, one of which is your post. Can you provide a reason, and perhaps a Peat reference? gracias

we eat tons of fruit here in Mexico, and a lot is berries. I eat strawberries every day, my wife blueberries...

 

[schultz]

huh? what? I never heard this before.

just did a forum-search too, on 'seedy fruits', and found only 2 hits, one of which is your post. Can you provide a reason, and perhaps a Peat reference? gracias

we eat tons of fruit here in Mexico, and a lot is berries. I eat strawberries every day, my wife blueberries...

I wouldn't worry about the seeds in berries too much. Life is too short to worry about everything lol. But you can make up your own mind.

Here is what Ray says about it in an interview...

"Or the upper part of the plant, the leaves and stems and seeds are defending against our grazing animals and insects and people that pluck off the easiest parts to get at. So the worst toxins are in the leaves and seeds. And in many cases, the plants want to spread their seeds, which are defended by internal toxins, but they want to spread them by having birds or other animals eat the fruit and pass the seeds through to propagate them elsewhere. And so, the fruits are evolved in many cases to be delicious, nutritious and non-toxic. So if you look at the plants’ defense system, the fruits are almost always the safest part and the roots would come in next as the second safest. Seeds are the very worst for the plant’s toxins and leaves are intermediate for toxicity."

Questioned about this in another interview, Ray says this...

RAY PEAT: No, some seeds do pass through harmlessly, like cactus pear seeds. They are so tough that they pass through without being an irritant -¬ but tomato seeds are so tender that if they get crushed by chewing they release fairly toxic materials, protein oxidising -¬and seeds in general are protected for the plant’s benefit by toxins that are aimed at whatever predator threatens them. So many seeds contain toxins that are intended to prevent mammalian enzymes from digesting them.

CALLER: Aha, so like a blackberry seed, blackberries, I mean they seem so good but those seeds they seem like they are just going to get stuck in the intestine somewhere cause they are so hard. Is that a possibility or are they going to pass through or are they going to create that toxic effect?

RAY PEAT: No, they pass right through unless you chew them and have an allergic reaction.


If you were really concerned about strawberries (it sounds like you're not) you could just shave the top layer off quickly with a vegetable peeler.

 

[Giraffe]

Blueberries might be my favorite fruit, but... This past summer, I was buying those big boxes of plump blueberries at Costco and would eat large servings. I finally noticed that those big servings were constipating. Gave up the berries then and didn't have the problem. I thought it might be that the Costco berries were heavily sprayed with pesticides. But I tried the frozen wild, organic blueberries from Trader Joe's recently and saw the same pattern. So I think the seeds are the problem. Someday I will experiment by cooking and straining blueberries and see what happens.

Dried blueberries are used to treat diarrhea. I once used them for this purpose. I ate a few more than the dose I was advised to ingest, and I got constipated big time. I had bought them in a shop specialized in herbal medicine.

 

[jitsmonkey]

I have asked Ray this very question and his answer was to avoid foods where you are unable to avoid the seeds. Blueberries would be in this category.

 

[Dragon]

I wouldn't worry about the seeds in berries too much. Life is too short to worry about everything lol. ....... If you were really concerned about strawberries (it sounds like you're not) you could just shave the top layer off quickly with a vegetable peeler.

no, you're right, I'm going to go right on eating my strawberries. It's my egg-input lunch each day....12 oz milk, big handful strawberries, blender, when the straws are well mixed crack in 2-3 eggs...yumm. Or, as a dee-lightful drink after we get back from the beach in the afternoon, then drop the eggs, use coconut milk instead, and pour in 2-4 shots of Ron Blanco...

anyway, perhaps we just have a crappy blender, but the straw seeds are there in the bottom of the glass when I'm done, unbroken/unchopped. So I'd think that they make it through the GI ok.

Another point on seed 'toxins' in general, is hormesis. Something which makes a lot of sense to me, but which Ray doesn't seem to think/talk about much. A little bit of a 'good' toxin can be a very good thing it seems (from research into hormesis).

 

[schultz]

Another point on seed 'toxins' in general, is hormesis. Something which makes a lot of sense to me, but which Ray doesn't seem to think/talk about much. A little bit of a 'good' toxin can be a very good thing it seems (from research into hormesis).

Actually Ray talked about how a little bit of endotoxin is good because it stimulates the immune system.

RAY PEAT: "Yeah, it stimulates defense reactions and so it's kind of a toughening up reaction to have a small amount of it, if you were born in a germ-free environment, your first exposure to bacteria is likely to be lethal, but absorbing a little bit of the endotoxin toughens up the system."

 

[smith]

Look into frozen organic blueberries. I agree that the fresh stuff costs way too much.

Think they spray those with pesticides too?