The finding seems pretty clear; Milk blocks the absorption of antioxidants from blueberries if consumed at the same time.
Have Your Blueberries This Way -- It's Better
Get more nutrition from your blueberries by tossing them into a steamy bowl of oatmeal instead of cold cereal and milk.
Why? Because a recent study revealed that combining blueberries and milk in the same meal could block your body's absorption of the antioxidant goodness in the berries.
The ABCs of Antioxidant Absorption
Blueberries are packed with powerful phenolic antioxidants that help keep you young by combating oxidative stress. Problem is, these superchemicals don't always make it from your mouth to your bloodstream; you probably absorb less than 5 percent of the phenolics you get from foods. And certain food combos don't help. When researchers had volunteers eat blueberries with a chaser of water or milk, the blueberry-and-milk combo resulted in significantly fewer phenolics being absorbed compared with the berries-and-water combo. (Find out how blueberry polyphenols help your brain.)
When Milk Doesn't Do You Good
Researchers believe that the proteins in milk somehow interfere with antioxidant absorption. And other milk research has already shown similar results with tea and chocolate phenolics. So what to do? Skim milk in your cereal may be an option. Although skim milk still interfered with phenolic absorption in the blueberry study, it interfered less than whole milk. You could also wait a couple of hours between eating blueberries and having milk.
http://www.realage.c...-way-its-better
From Pubmed;
Antioxidant activity of blueberry fruit is impaired by association with milk.
Serafini M, Testa MF, Villaño D, Pecorari M, van Wieren K, Azzini E, Brambilla A, Maiani G.
Antioxidant Research Laboratory, Unit of Human Nutrition, Istituto Nazionale di Ricerca per gli Alimenti e la Nutrizione, 00178 Rome, Italy. serafini_mauro@yahoo.it
The antioxidant properties of dietary phenolics are believed to be reduced in vivo because of their affinity for proteins. In this study we assessed the bioavailability of phenolics and the in vivo plasma antioxidant capacity after the consumption of blueberries (Vaccinium corymbosum L.) with and without milk. In a crossover design, 11 healthy human volunteers consumed either (a) 200 g of blueberries plus 200 ml of water or (b) 200 g of blueberries plus 200 ml of whole milk. Venous samples were collected at baseline and at 1, 2, and 5 h postconsumption. Ingestion of blueberries increased plasma levels of reducing and chain-breaking potential (+6.1%, p<0.001; +11.1%, p<0.05) and enhanced plasma concentrations of caffeic and ferulic acid. When blueberries and milk were ingested there was no increase in plasma antioxidant capacity. There was a reduction in the peak plasma concentrations of caffeic and ferulic acid (-49.7%, p<0.001, and -19.8%, p<0.05, respectively) as well as the overall absorption (AUC) of caffeic acid (p<0.001). The ingestion of blueberries in association with milk, thus, impairs the in vivo antioxidant properties of blueberries and reduces the absorption of caffeic acid.
http://www.ncbi.nlm....pubmed/19135520
Edited by tadgh78, 01 March 2010 - 03:20 PM.