Lucky you, it’s berry season, and they are so much more than just a pretty fruit.

By Radha Marcum

My three-year-old loves berries. Not just loves, but loves. If given the chance, she’d gorge herself on them all day long, staining her mouth and chin (and clothes) with their red-blue-purple-black juices. And who can blame her? “There’s nothing better than a big bowl of ripe mixed berries served with a dollop of slightly sweetened whipped cream,” says Heidi Swanson, fresh-food guru and author of Super Natural Cooking: Five Ways to Incorporate Whole and Natural Ingredients into Your Cooking (Celestial Arts, 2007).

No matter how you enjoy your berries, you’re doing right by your body by eating them. Research shows that compared with other fresh fruits and vegetables, these juicy little morsels rock the nutritional world. They are not only low in calories but are virtually off the charts when it comes to health-enhancing vitamins and antioxidants—as if each sweet-tart explosion of flavor wasn’t reason enough to love sun-ripened strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries (and their exotic cousins, acai and goji berries).

High in vitamin C. Strawberries boast more of this basic nutrient per serving than oranges, providing more than 100 percent of the daily recommendation for adults in just one cup. Vitamin C promotes healthy skin, tendons, ligaments, and blood vessels and acts as an antioxidant, scavenging free radicals and protecting the body’s tissues from damage.

Food for thought. Berries give your brain a healthy boost. Researchers believe that compounds in berries, particularly blueberries, can protect the brain against age-related damage, dementia, and Alzheimer’s and may even help brain cells regenerate.

Cancer combatant. Berries contain phytochemicals (plant nutrients) that may help prevent certain types of cancer. The anthocyanins, ellagic acid, and pterostilbene (a relative of the powerful antioxidant resveratrol found in grapes and red wine) in berries have been shown in animal studies to inhibit leukemia and cancers of the lung, colon, liver, esophagus, and skin.

Sight for sore eyes. Berries may be as good as carrots for eyesight. A number of studies have shown that bilberry (also known as huckleberry or European blueberry) extract improves night vision. And fruit in general, including berries, may lower your risk of age-related macular degeneration.

To take advantage of all that berries have to offer, do yourself a favor and get the very best of the season by picking your own, says Heidi. “Wild berries grow all over the country. If you’re up for an adventure, seek out ripe wild berries in your area and pick those.” There are also berry farms (check out www.pickyourown.org for places near you), or get them fresh at your local farmers’ market.

“Berries are very fragile and degrade quickly,” says Heidi, “so they’re best within a day or two of picking.” If you don’t eat them all on the way home, store berries on the top shelf of the refrigerator and don’t wash them until you are ready to use them, advises Ken Ohlinger, executive chef at the Devil’s Thumb Ranch and Ranch House Restaurant in Tabernash, Colorado. According to The Produce Bible: Essential Ingredient Information and More Than 200 Recipes for Fruits, Vegetables, Herbs & Nuts (Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 2007), washing leaves berries prone to damage; some berries, such as strawberries, will absorb water, diluting their taste.

Berry Basics

Heidi Swanson and Ken Ohlinger offer the following tips.

A common problem with supermarket berries is mold, so give baskets a thorough once-over and choose berries that are mold-free, ripe, bright, and vibrant, with good structure.

Toss berries in flour before adding them to a muffin recipe to keep them from sinking to the bottom of the muffin.

Blackberries make great relishes.

Sliced or whole berries make excellent additions to salads—or puree them into vinaigrettes for an extra tangy, slightly sweet dressing.

Use frozen berries only if they aren’t the focal point of the dish. “Frozen berries are fine for smoothies, pancakes, baked goods, and berry syrups,” says Heidi.

Make berry syrups by boiling fresh berries, straining, adding sugar (approximately 1 cup of sugar for each cup of berry juice), and boiling until the liquid is reduced to a syrupy consistency. Add to sparkling water for a refreshing summer drink.

Use antioxidant-rich dried goji berries, now showing up in natural grocery stores across the country, in homemade power bars, granola, and oatmeal and atop green salads.

Don’t think twice: organic berries are worth the extra buck (or two or three)! The Environmental Working Group reports that among conventionally produced fruits and vegetables, berries (particularly strawberries) rank among the highest in pesticide residue. So choose organic for a delicious, chemical-free treat.