Drinking 12 ounces of elderberry juice every day may help with weight management goals as well as enhance metabolic health, according to a Washington State University-led study recently published in the journal Nutrients.
Elderberry is a small purple berry that has traditionally been used as a medicinal plant and supplement to help promote immune function and other potential health benefits. This randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial adds another potential benefit, finding that drinking twelve ounces of elderberry juice every day for a week promoted positive changes in the gut microbiome, as well as improved glucose tolerance and fat oxidation among the 18 overweight adult participants.
“Elderberry is an underappreciated berry, commercially and nutritionally,” said corresponding author Patrick Solverson, an assistant professor in the WSU Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine’s Department of Nutrition and Exercise Physiology. “We’re now starting to recognize its value for human health, and the results are very exciting.
Elderberry juice promotes positive changes
According to the researchers, clinical testing after the intervention revealed that participants in the elderberry juice group experienced significant increases in their beneficial gut bacteria, including firmicutes and actinobacteria, while at the same time experiencing decreased amounts of harmful bacteria, such as Bacteroidetes. This is important because a healthy gut microbiota is key to nutrient absorption which supports both physical and mental health.
But that is not the only positive effect that came from drinking the elderberry juice. Along with the positive gut microbiome changes, those in the intervention groups also experienced improvements in metabolism. The analysis revealed that drinking elderberry juice reduced participant blood glucose levels by an average of 24%, as well as a 9% decrease in insulin levels. These positive changes indicate a significant improvement in the ability to process sugars following carbohydrate consumption.
And the positive effects of drinking elderberry juice did not stop there either. The results suggest that those in the intervention group experienced an enhanced ability of the body to burn fat, with those in the intervention group showing significantly increased fat oxidation, which is the breakdown of fatty acids, after they consumed a high-carb meal and during exercise.
The researchers are attributing all the positive effects that were found to the elderberry’s high concentration of potent plant-based bioactive compounds called anthocyanins which belong to the flavonoid family of antioxidants that carry a variety of health benefits such as antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, and anti-diabetic effects.
“Food is medicine, and science is catching up to that popular wisdom,” Solverson said. “This study contributes to a growing body of evidence that elderberry, which has been used as a folk remedy for centuries, has numerous benefits for metabolic as well as prebiotic health.”
Elderberries are not the only berries to contain antioxidant anthocyanins, however, they are typically in lower concentrations in other berries. For example, blackberry fans would have to eat four cups a day to achieve the same anthocyanin dose that is within a mere 6 ounces of elderberry juice, according to Solverson.
Pre-COVID, elderberry products were not that popular, since then the demand for them has grown significantly and continues to be an expanding market, becoming a $320 million-a-year business in Missouri alone as such, the researchers have filed for a provisional patent for using the bioactive components of American black elderberry for gut health and weight management via supplements or other applications.
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References/Sources/Materials provided by:
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nu16203555
https://www.npr.org/2023/08/14/1193782333/the-market-for-elderberries-is-booming
