Healthy Foods

Delicious Nutrition

Blueberries are well known to provide a myriad of health benefits, and can support healthy cognition at any age. In addition to their nutrient profile, blueberries contain 5 of the 6 major antioxidants, including anthocyanin, while provide a myriad of benefits support brain health.

Local and Organic

Grown in the idyllic Columbia Valley, the unique microclimate makes it possible to grow organic berries of the highest quality. Located just 80km from downtown Vancouver, you can taste the difference local makes. Because local food doesn't need to travel far or sit in storage or weeks, the result is a more nutritious and delicious experience.

Carbon Conscious

Organic blueberry production produces very few emissions, and in fact well managed farms are important tools in sequestering carbon. Local production and delivery minimizes emissions from transportation, ensuring a transparent system for providing high quality foods, while helping protect our plant.

  • Blueberries and Health

    Regardless of specific claims about antioxidants, we believe everyone should be eating more fruit. Blueberries are high in fibre and contain many of the vitamins and minerals essential for a well functioning mind and body.

    They also contain many phytonutrients (metabolites found in plants which are not the essential vitamins and minerals) which may be beneficial to human health. For example, lowering cancer risk (Rossi et al., 2006), improving cognition (Baroni et al., 2021) and sports performance (Sommerville et al., 2017).

    Large controlled studies have found that blueberries may be beneficial for human health as part of a well balanced diet.

  • Benefits of Antioxidants

    • Free radicals are ions produced naturally by metabolism. Their unpaired electron makes them highly reactive potentially leading to DNA damage (Matsui et al., 2000) or the mutation of proteins and fats such as those in the cell membrane (Halliwell and Chirico, 1993).
    • It is well established that excessive free radicals contribute to chronic diseases including cancer (Sosa et al., 2012), heart disease, cognitive decline, and vision loss.
    • It is also established that polyphenols found in blueberries and other fruit act as antioxidants in-vitro based on tests such as ORAC and FRAP.
    • However, based on this it cannot be concluded that consuming antioxidants via fruits such as blueberries will prevents chronic diseases.
      1) Consuming fruits high in polyphenols does not necessarily mean these chemicals become available to our cells. The bioavailability of anthocyanins is generally < 1% (Walton, 2007) compared to vitamin C which can be < 95%.
      2) Those that are available may behave differently in certain tissues than in vitro. For example, the UK Food Standard Agency warned smokers against B-carotene supplements as it was thought to act as a pro-oxidant in some cases.
      3) Even if relatively large quantities were available after digestion their direct effect cannot be observed as most polyphenols undergo extensive metabolism during digestion and in vivo biomarkers are not available.


    Blueberries and the USDA’s ORCA test


    In 1991 the Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity (ORAC) was created by the USDA to quantify the antioxidant capacity of foods. These results were published on the USDA website and blueberries, being at the top received much publicity for the disease prevention effects.
    In 2010 the following was published by the USDA:

    “There is no evidence that the beneficial effects of polyphenol-rich foods can be attributed to the antioxidant properties of these foods. The data for antioxidant capacity of foods generated by in vitro methods cannot be extrapolated to in vivo effects and clinical trials to test benefits of dietary antioxidants have produced mixed results. We know now that antioxidant molecules in food have a wide range of functions, many of which are unrelated to the ability to absorb free radicals”

  • Further Reading

    Baby B, Antony P, Vijayan R. Antioxidant and anticancer properties of berries. Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr. 2018;58(15):2491-2507. doi: 10.1080/10408398.2017.1329198. Epub 2017 Aug 14. PMID: 28609132.

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    Baroni L, Sarni AR, Zuliani C. Plant Foods Rich in Antioxidants and Human Cognition: A Systematic Review. Antioxidants (Basel). 2021 Apr 30;10(5):714. doi: 10.3390/antiox10050714. PMID: 33946461; PMCID: PMC8147117.

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    Godos J, Caraci F, Castellano S, Currenti W, Galvano F, Ferri R, Grosso G. Association Between Dietary Flavonoids Intake and Cognitive Function in an Italian Cohort. Biomolecules. 2020 Sep 9;10(9):1300. doi: 10.3390/biom10091300. PMID: 32916935; PMCID: PMC7565262.

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    Somerville V, Bringans C, Braakhuis A. Polyphenols and Performance: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Sports Med. 2017 Aug;47(8):1589-1599. doi: 10.1007/s40279-017-0675-5. Erratum in: Sports Med. 2017 Aug;47(8):1601. PMID: 28097488.

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    Theodoratou E, Kyle J, Cetnarskyj R, Farrington SM, Tenesa A, Barnetson R, Porteous M, Dunlop M, Campbell H. Dietary flavonoids and the risk of colorectal cancer. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2007 Apr;16(4):684-93. doi: 10.1158/1055-9965.EPI-06-0785. PMID: 17416758.
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