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For many folks, a popular way of eating this fresh ripened fruit is in sprinkling a handful on top of a bowl of dry breakfast cereal with milk. Who would have ever thought that the high amount of phytonutrients, which are found in fresh, raw blueberries, would be severely compromised if ingested together with milk?

At one of the lowest calorie profiles of any fruit, at about 80 calories per cup, blueberries are an absolute powerhouse of healthy dietary nutrition. In fact, they are a sensible food choice for anyone who is concerned with counting calories.

The health enhancing benefits of eating fresh blueberries have been well documented for a number of years now, in their ability to help protect man against the development of many degenerative health conditions like cardiovascular disease, macular degeneration, brain illnesses, gastrointestinal health problems, and cancer.

According to a research study published in the 'Free Radical Biology and Medicine' journal, it was reported that reduced blood concentration and absorption levels were noted in volunteers who ate fresh blueberries with milk. When blueberries were taken with water instead, however, the opposite affect was documented.

The hypothesis of this study linked the binding of the plant phenolic compounds to the protein in the milk, thus canceling out any major benefits of eating the blueberries. The suggestion was that this discovery may apply to ingesting other fruits with milk as well. And to get the maximum nutritional benefits of eating any type of fresh raw fruit, it may be best to eat the fruit separately from milk, or other foods high in protein.

How far apart? The recommendation is one hour before or two hours after.

Just so you are aware of the fact, any fruit (or vegetable) that is heated to high temperatures destroys phenolics. So, even though blueberry pie may taste great, it is not going to be that great for your health.

Like all nutritional studies that are conducted, such as this one, I am sure some of you may have some unanswered questions. I know I certainly did. No matter how well educated the research team is, and how professionally done the studies are, I think it might be wise to take information such as this with a little grain of salt.

Information such as what was reported here is not always the last word on anything. While it is highly useful information, there is always more that can be learned before arriving at a definite conclusion.

For what it is worth, until more variations of this experiment are explored further, I believe more questions really need to be asked. How more thorough could this study have been?

The main question that comes to mind is this, was pasteurized or raw milk used in the study? If it was pasteurized, the milk was definitely void of important nutrients such as naturally occurring beneficial bacteria, enzymes, amino acids, vitamins and minerals that may have made all the difference in the world whether the bioavailability of the phenolics in the blueberries was properly absorbed or not.

Another question that comes to mind is, even if raw milk produces the same results, what type of food sources and man-made chemicals did the animals ingest that might possibly affect the concentration and absorption rates of plant phenolic compounds?

Of course, water is always the best solvent fluid choice. Nothing does a better job of distributing nutrients to where they are needed the most than water. Unfortunately, it doesn't taste real great poured over your cereal!