Benefits From Blackberry Juice

Blackberries, with their deep purple to blue-black color, are a sweet treat during the late spring and summer. They're rich in a number of nutrients and you can eat them fresh or use them to make jams, jellies or sauces. Drinking freshly made blackberry juice is one way of getting most of blackberries' health benefits in liquid form. It takes 3 cups of fresh blackberries to make a 1-cup serving of fresh blackberry juice.

Potassium Content
A 1-cup serving of blackberry juice has 700 milligrams of potassium. This is 15 percent of the recommended dietary intake of potassium for adult men and women, and 13.7 percent of the RDI for pregnant and breastfeeding women. Potassium is an electrolyte that maintains your body’s acid-base balance, and regulates your heart’s electrical activity. You need potassium to build muscle and protein and to maintain overall healthy growth.

Rich in Folate
A single serving of blackberry juice has 108 micrograms of folate per serving, which provides 27 percent of the dietary reference intake for adult men and women, and more than 21 percent of the DRI for pregnant and breastfeeding women. Folate is a B vitamin, and is sometimes known as vitamin B-9. It provides support to your immune system, helps your body tolerate stress and aids in the breakdown of carbohydrates for energy. Folate is also essential for brain function, maintaining mental and emotional well-being, and helps your body produce DNA. It is especially important during periods of rapid development such as during pregnancy.

A Good Source of Vitamin C
A 1-cup serving of blackberry juice has more than 90 milligrams of vitamin C. This provides more than 100 percent of the dietary reference intake of vitamin C for adult men and women, including pregnant women, and 75 percent of the DRI for breastfeeding women. Vitamin C aids in the production of collagen, which keeps your skin, blood vessels, cartilage, tendons and ligaments healthy. Vitamin C is also an antioxidant that can block some of the damage from free radicals, which are produced as your body breaks down food.

Rich in Antioxidants
Blackberries contain large quantities of anthocyanins, a natural antioxidant. These anthocyanins are what give blackberries their deep, dark color, and you can find them in red and blue fruits, including strawberries, blueberries and pomegranates. In fact, numerous studies conducted on animal and human cells have found anthocyanins to be beneficial in preventing heart disease, alleviating symptoms of diabetes, and to possess anti-inflammatory and anti-carcinogenic properties, according to a review published in 2010 in the Annual Review of Food Science and Technology.