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Published on 01/07/03

Rats' circus act reveals blueberry benefits

By Mike Isbell
University of Georgia

A rat circus. That's what I first thought of when I heard the university researcher tell about rats walking rods, hanging on to wires with their little paws and walking on a rod that rotates underneath them.

That was just to test their psychomotor skills.

But the test that was coming would have scared them to death if they could have known what they would have to do: find a submerged platform in a pool of water -- and then remember where it was.

The rats with the poor memory had to swim a long time in their search for the platform, or risk drowning.

So who cares about the stupid rats? Drown them all, you say?

Well, don't be so quick to judge.

Old rats and young

What I haven't told you yet is that the battery of tests was done on old rats and young rats. And, of course, you can probably figure out that the old rats didn't perform as well as the young ones.

But then the old rats were fed a diet rich in blueberries, and you know what? They performed the same tests and showed improvements in their short-term memory and even reversed some of the loss of their strength and coordination.

Heck, some of those old rats could have even been doing chin-ups while they were hanging onto that wire!

That tells me I should be eating more blueberries. And I know I'll eat more of them if I grow them myself.

Planting choices

This is the planning and planting time for new fruit plants. Your choices of fruits that can be grown are fairly large, but you need to keep in mind such things as the pollination needs, the soil drainage and amount of sun available (if your yard is shady, forget about growing fruit) as you make your choices.

Blueberries need cross-pollination, so you'll need at least two varieties. They don't need a lot of space (8 feet by 10 feet per plant), but they need at least half a day of full sun.

They seldom need any type of spraying for pests. That makes blueberries an almost perfect fruit.

With the age-reversal effect that blueberries can have, I think I'll plant a few. Then maybe I can do a few more chin-ups, too.

Mike Isbell is the Heard County extension coordinator with the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.

Experts/Sources:
Mike Isbell
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