We know that drinking dry red wine can potentially control cholesterol and lower blood glucose (sugar) levels. Researchers at the University of Illinois have now developed an alcohol-free blueberry-blackberry "wine," which, according to a new study, can help reduce the effects of Type 2 diabetes.

Typically, people with Type 2 diabetes must avoid alcohol. In 2012, 29.1 million Americans, or about 9 percent of the population, had the life threatening disease, according to the American Diabetes Association. This new study shows that the fermented berry beverage effectively reduced the development of obesity and blood glucose levels in mice on a high-fat diet, according to a statement from the university.

Researchers studied groups of mice with diet-induced obesity and hyperglycemia. All of the subjects that had been given the fermented berry beverage — which included a ratio of 70 percent fermented blackberries to 30 percent fermented blueberries — saw benefits.

More healing benefits were linked to patient groups that consumed more anthocyanins, which is a compound commonly found in the pigments of fruits such as blueberries, grapes, and apples

"We optimized the best ratio between blueberries and blackberries. Blackberries are very unique and I think that's one of the reasons why we selected a high concentration of them in this study. Blackberries have a very specific profile of anthocyanins, and that was amazing at lowering the absorption of glucose in this case," said researcher Elvira de Mejia, according to Medical XPress.

Moving forward, berry wine could help reduce the amount of medication needed to treat diabetes, but it may not be able to replace medications.

"We know that fruits, vegetables, cereals, legumes, and berries are good, but here we explain that after fermentation we improve and increase the concentration of these pigments [anthocyanins] and they are very high antioxidant components that benefit the body," de Mejia says.

Source: Johnson MH, Wallig M, Luna Vital DA, de Mejia EG. Alcohol-free fermented blueberry–blackberry beverage phenolic extract attenuates diet-induced obesity and blood glucose in C57BL/6J mice. The Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry. 2016.

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