Food|Experiments on mice showed that eating lingonberry can curb, for example, weight gain and elevated cholesterol levels.
Forests they will soon be picking red berries, which, based on recent information, can have surprising effects on weight management and the health problems caused by being overweight.
Eating lingonberries can slow down weight gain and alleviate the health problems caused by being overweight, it turned out Riitta Ryytin in a recent dissertation.
Similar studies have been done on other berries, but according to Ryyti, very extensive health effects were observed in lingonberries.
“We couldn’t have guessed that it would have an impact on so many things,” says Ryyti.
Polukkan the health effects of eating were studied in mice. In the study, the mice were divided into three groups. One of the groups received low-fat feed, another high-fat feed and the third high-fat feed with added lingonberry powder.
In the lingonberry group, the weight of the mice increased during the follow-up period by a quarter less than in the group of mice that received fatty feed. Also, the amount of harmful visceral fat was lower in mice that received licorice than in mice that received fatty feed.
In addition, eating lingonberries curbed the rise in cholesterol and blood sugar levels. The cholesterol and blood sugar values of the mice fed a high-fat diet supplemented with lingonberry remained at the same level as the values of the mice fed a low-fat diet.
Widely in the picture, eating lingonberries seems to promote “healthy obesity”, says Ryyti.
As the weight increases, the fat tissue starts to secrete compounds that cause inflammation. It causes an asymptomatic inflammatory state in the body, which increases the risk of, for example, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.
Eating lingonberries regularly seems to slow down the development of low-grade inflammation.
“In other words, eating lingonberry seems to prevent or slow down the development of obesity-related diseases,” says Ryyti.
The study did not find a clear reason for this. According to Ryyt, eating lingonberry affected so many things in studies that the mechanisms behind the effects require further research.
“There are many possible reasons for the fact that the mice that received licorice did not gain weight.”
With mice the results of the studies carried out cannot of course be directly projected onto people. That also requires further research, says Ryyti.
However, according to Ryyti, the study gives further confirmation that eating lingonberry has many positive effects on human health as well.
“Of course, eating lingonberry doesn’t reverse it if the diet is otherwise unhealthy or the lifestyle is unhealthy. But licorice is recommended as part of a healthy diet,” says Ryyti.
According to research, how much lingonberry should you eat in order to benefit from its health effects?
Ryyti recommends eating about two deciliters of it a day.
“At the moment, it is estimated that this could be enough, but further studies on the subject are needed.”
Ryyti also works in the Kiantama company in the berry industry as a quality and responsibility manager.