Kasey Ferrell

Staff Writer

    Move over, Acai berries and mangosteen! -There’s a less expensive, easier to eat antioxidant in town.  Plus, it’s a superfood that Native Americans have known about for generations: Aronia berries.

    “It’s got kind of an astringent taste to it.  It’s very naturally tart,” Tammy Ross, director of marketing for Westin Foods, said in an interview.  Westin Foods owns Mae’s Health & Wellness, producers of the Super-berries line of aronia berry products.  “It’s very similar in taste to a wine grape.  What you’re tasting in that tartness is actually good for you - a type of an antioxidant and type of a compound that can be found in wine and can also be found in tea.”

    Aronia berries contain a natural blend of polyphenolic antioxidants that combine the cell-damaging free radicals created in our bodies by stress, environmental pollution, medical x-rays, and other aspects of daily living - even exercise!  Among those antioxidants are anthocyanins, which have been shown to help fight diseases caused by oxidative stress like certain types of cancer; cardiovascular disease, chronic inflammation, and liver function, according to studies published by the U.S. National Library of Medicine and elsewhere.  Aronia berries have twice as much antioxidant power as cranberries and four times as much as pomegranates, strawberries, goji berries, and blueberries; according to the USDA.  -They are difficult to compare to chia seeds however - another popular antioxidant - because chia seeds aren’t fruits.

    Also called “chokeberries” thanks to their super-tart taste, the dark purple clusters grow wild in North America and have recently been cultivated by farmers in the Midwest.  These distinctive berries grow on bushes, with several round fruit clumped together on rosy-red stems.

    Unlike trendy acai berries - which are usually found mixed into other products or even in powdered supplement form - aronia berries are available as a whole fruit.  You can find them online at Amazon.com for about ten dollars per pound, where they cost far less per serving than dried goji berries - which go for about $18 per pound - as well as dried wild berries - which are about 48 dollars per pound.  -Native Americans used them as a part of their diet, as preservatives for their meat, and also for dying cloth, Ross explained.  It has also become quite popular in Europe, where they’re now prized for their health and wellness properties.

    Aronia berries are not a dietary supplement, though - they are a food.  LIke elderberries or black currants, aronia berries can be used, however, to make wine, jams, syrups, and teas.  You can stir them into fresh sauces or use them along with blueberries in your breakfast muffins.