There has been a long stated saying that “Apple a day keeps the doctor away”. But it seems that there is competition that Apple has to look out for. If a research is to be believed then it might not be apple a day but a bowl of strawberries and blueberries that keep the doctor away. A research has claimed that eating berries helps in slowing age related mental decline.

The researchers from US came to this conclusion after analyzing health and lifestyle data from the Nurses’ Health Study. This study was held in 1976 and there were nearly 122,000 nurses that were recruited aged between 30 and 55 years. Between 1995 and 2001, there were 16,010 women out of those recruited earlier, who were analyzed on the grounds of mental health. Most of these women were older than the age of 70 years.

The researchers found that those women who had consumed large amounts of strawberries and blueberries had experienced slower mental decline. The data showed that regular consumption of fruits can lead to delayed cognitive aging by almost 2.5 years.

These strawberries and blueberries are known to be rich in flavonoid chemicals. These chemicals have powerful antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, which are very beneficial. According to lead author of the study, Dr. Elizabeth Devore, from Harvard Medical School in Boston, “We provide the first epidemiologic evidence that berries may slow progression of cognitive decline in elderly women. Our findings have significant public health implications as increasing berry intake is a fairly simple dietary modification to test cognition protection in older adults”.

Despite the claim, the researchers also said that they cannot rule out that there is a possibility of other factors like exercising that might have an effect on this data.