Buffalo berry good

“Superfood” is somewhat like “superman”: exciting to contemplate but largely fictional. No one food is going to save your health from distress and peril. Food is a multi-coloured, multi-textured, multi-flavoured, multi-component palette; but that doesn’t mean that some foods aren’t extremely healthy in their own right. Where the term “superfood” comes in is largely when the marketers get involved and that is why a new study means that you will probably be hearing of buffaloberry as a “superfood” quite soon.

Buffaloberries (Shepherdia argentea) grow in almost every part of the United States and Canada and are commonly found growing in open woods, prairie valleys, dry eroded hillsides and along river and stream edges. The buffaloberry shrub normally grows between one and two metres tall and has green leaves covered with silvery or brownish scales on their undersides. In the spring the shrub produces clusters of small yellow flowers. The small, round buffaloberry fruit is either bright yellow or scarlet. A unique property of the berries is that they contain substances called saponins that foam in water.

Over the centuries, buffaloberries have been used widely by Native Americans. One of the most notable uses involved the foaming quality of the berries and was in the manufacture of “Indian ice cream” made by beating hot water, buffaloberries and sugar together by hand. Buffaloberries have also been eaten raw and, since European colonisation, the berries have been used to produce drinks, jam and sauces. Parts of the buffaloberry plant have been used to treat constipation, tuberculosis, swelling, cuts, arthritis, venereal diseases, stomach troubles, fevers, broken bones, mosquito bites, sore eyes, acne, boils, stomach cancer, gallstones, toothaches and headaches. Now a new study has discovered a property in buffaloberries that will make them highly prized to modern users.

The study examined buffaloberries growing throughout Dakota. Like many berries, buffaloberries were found to be rich in phenolic compounds that have antioxidant properties. Specifically, they found that the main phenolics were lycopene and 55 per cent of the lycopene was methyl apo-6-lycopenoate (MA6L). Lycopene is rich in foods like watermelon and tomato and, while specific studies on the lycopene from buffaloberries need to be done, lycopene is an excellent antioxidant that has been shown to reduce prostate cancer risk, protect blood vessels and reduce oxidative damage to cholesterol.

Traditionally buffaloberries were eaten raw, but only after the first frost had naturally sweetened them and in moderation. Eating too many buffaloberries in any form causes diarrhoea and it has even be suggested it could be fatal. However, eaten in moderate sensible levels, buffaloberries seem safe and these researchers say that since they can grow in poor soil they could be a viable crop to be grown by Native Americans on marginal land that will not be productive otherwise.

All in all, the stage is set for buffaloberries to be the next superfood. You don’t need to buy into that hype though to be able to enjoy the health benefits of adding small amounts of this food to an overall healthy diet.