From The Daily and Sunday Express (UK)

NOT only are smoothies delicious, nutritious and quick to make but these combinations can do wonders for our ailment...

BEST FOR THE HEART Ingredients: Equal amounts of grape juice, cranberry juice and blackcurrant juice Why? French scientists tested the blend on pig arteries in the lab and found it caused artery walls to relax.

“The research adds more weight to evidence that eating fruit and vegetables is good for us in terms of reducing our risk of heart disease,” says Tracy Parker, the British Heart Foundation’s heart health dietician.

Researchers looked for a chemical called polyphenol in fruit and berries. They found the most active fruits included blackcurrant, blueberry, aronia (chokeberries), cranberry, loganberry and grape.

From NutraIngredients-usa.com (US)

Extracts from chokeberry (Aronia melanocarpa) or grape seeds (Vitis vinifera) may counter the effects of hormones linked to abnormal blood clotting, suggests data from a new cell study.

Healthy blood clotting is a necessary defense mechanism to prevent blood loss resulting from an injury to blood vessels, but certain disorders may provoke the activity of a protein involved in blood clotting (thrombin) and contribute to the development of diseases such as atherosclerosis, coronary heart disease, and stroke.

From NutraIngredients.com (Europe)

Food product launches containing antioxidant-rich aronia berries continue to increase in Europe, with the US market lagging far behind.

According to data from Mintel’s Global New Products Database (GNPD), the number of foods containing aronia berries as an ingredient has increased from a paltry 2 in 1997, to 101 in 2008, 118 in 2009, and 131 last year. 2011 to date has seen 96 products containing the berries.

Three distinct categories dominate the new product launches: Beverages (non-alcoholic); dairy; and sugar & gum confectionery.

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From NutraIngredients-usa.com (US)

An extract from aronia berries may improve blood flow measures and reduce markers of clotting in people with metabolic syndrome, according to new data from Poland.

Researchers from the Medical University of Lodz report that people suffering from metabolic syndrome experienced improvements in a range of cardiovascular measures, including overall clotting and their lipid profiles.

Writing in the European Journal of Nutrition, the scientists report that potential benefits of extracts from Aronia melanocarpa may be related to the anthocyanin content of the berries.

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From Zdrowie.wm (Poland translated)

Over a million people a year in Poland are hospitalized due to cardiovascular disease and nearly nine million suffer from hypertension. Prof. Prof. Marek Naruszewicz of Warsaw Medical University showed that bioflavonoids (antioxidants contained in aronia) can reduce hypertension and overcome other problems associated with heart disease.

Aronia berries contain no alcohol like wine or caffeine as in green tea yet they combine their health promoting properties. - A huge advantage of aronia (chokeberry) is that it does not accumulate in the body, we can not overdose, because it is excreted from the body after a few hours, says professor Naruszewicz.

Aronia contains the highest amount of antioxidants of all fruits. Aronia neutralizes free radicals which cause adverse effects and initiates vascular inflammation of various kinds in our body. To eliminate free radicals we would have to eat vegetables and fruits in large quantities at each meal at least five times a day. Since Polish society has no such a habit it is important to supplement with an extract from aronia (chokeberry).

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From The Daily Republic (US)

A dedicated couple is working to help others improve their health and well-being through a newly rediscovered “superberry.” Emily and Richard George, of rural Woonsocket, moved to the area five years ago from Pennsylvania. Richard’s aunt had suggested they visit to check out a farm for sale. They fell in love with the landscape and the people, and decided to move away from the hustle and bustle of the city. 

“We had a goal to start some kind of business to supplement our income,” Emily said. 

Emily, 44, works in the human resources department at Dakota Wesleyan University in Mitchell, and Richard, 47, drives truck for Swenson Brothers Grain in Woonsocket. 

They started their venture last year by planting several hundred aronia bushes. 

The Aronia berry is a native plant to North America, often called the superberry in contemporary culture because it has high levels of antioxidants and has been proven to help improve the immune system, according to “The Power of Nature,” a book written by Iwona Wawer. He is a Polish scientist who has studied the benefits of the Aronia berry. 

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From Markische Allgemeine (Germany translated)

They look like blueberries, have a small core and are healthy: Aronia (Chokeberry). The harvest in Germany has begun for the fruits originating from North America. 

The yield of aronia (chokeberries) will be below average, said the fruit farm Görnitz & son in Coswig who claims to have the largest aronia plantation in Germany. In the past 20 years the berries have been used almost exclusively as a dye in the food industry although recently the fruits have made a career as a health berry. 

No other fruit has such a high concentration of antioxidant anthocyanins. These dyes provide cell protection and anti-cancer, Alzheimer's and cardiovascular disease protection. Even with the Native American Indians the berries were known as a remedy. Later, the Russian fruit pioneer Ivan Michurin experimented with aronia (chokeberries). In the countries of the former Soviet bloc the fruit experienced a renaissance as a natural medicine. Aronia is still used today in Russia as an important home remedy.

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From TVP Bialystok (Poland translated)

Poland has long been the largest producer of aronia (chokeberries) in the world. In the Podlaskie province there are two hundred hectares of plantations of the fruit. Health properties of aronia (chokeberry), valued by experts, are especially useful for people exposed to harmful radiation, as in the inhabitants of the Japanese Fukushima area where the spring of this year, the tsunami damaged the nuclear power plant. - This effect has been very well researched. Over the years, aronia (chokeberry) was tested in military institutes, because we were afraid of the atomic bomb - said prof. Iwona Wawer of the Medical University of Warsaw. 

So came the idea for the export of Polish aronia (chokeberry) to Japan. Members Augustowsko-Podlaski Eco Farmers Association began working with Japanese companies. The talks involved the Polish Embassy in Japan. This can be an important market for our growers. - It might be a good chance, but we need to be patient and work persistently…

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From The DesMoines Register (US)

The Fort Dodge Country Club was a thriving place when David Sergeant's family joined in the 1950s.

"Membership flourished," said Sergeant, now a Fort Dodge attorney. "Things were cooking."

The good old days are gone. A significant drop in membership has forced the club, celebrating its 100th anniversary this summer, to think creatively to make sure the doors to the original clubhouse stay open.

According to the National Golf Foundation, the number of private clubs in the United States dropped from 4,898 in 1988 to 4,415 just 20 years later, and 10 to 15 percent of the existing clubs are "seriously challenged, financially and otherwise, which projects to at least 500 or so clubs nationwide."

This fall at the Fort Dodge Country Club, $30,000 worth of aronia berry bushes will be planted in a three-acre organic plat west of the No. 3 tee. The club sold members $1,000 investment subscriptions to buy the plants. The berries, used for things like wines, pharmaceuticals and jellies, won't produce a crop for at least three years.

"If we can just keep things going here for the next three years, this will be the equivalent of 40 to 50 memberships," said Sergeant, who serves on the club's long-range planning committee. "We all realize it's a high-risk thing. But it's worth a shot."

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From Tulsa World (US)

I DOUBT that many of us will be buying and planting shrubs over the weekend. Our more immediate task, thanks to record-breaking summer heat, may be disposing of the drought-stricken dead shrubs dotting our landscapes.

Eventually, however, when this plant-killing summer is but a lingering bad memory, many of us will be in the market for quality shrubs able to withstand future droughts. And when cooler air and gentle rains do return, here's a shrub worth remembering: aronia. 

Following the worst winter and summer on record, Black Aronia (Aronia melanocarpa) is thriving in the Linnaeus Teaching Garden in Woodward Park. 

In early spring, it loads its delicate gray branches with masses of tiny white flowers. Individual flowers are small, but their combined effect is eye-catching and special. 

By late summer, the tiny flowers develop into glossy, jet black berries, each about the size of a blueberry. Branch tips gently arch under the weight of so many berries. 

The "wow" effect isn't over yet, however. Black Aronia saves the best for last. By late fall, the once glossy green foliage turns scarlet red and lasts for weeks. 

Perhaps you're thinking, "If Black Aronia is that good, why isn't it as common as Crape Myrtle in local gardens?"

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From Daily Mail (Britain)

He exercises, takes vitamin pills and has admitted using Botox to erase his wrinkles.

But at the age of 51, it seems Simon Cowell is determined to keep drinking from the fountain of eternal youth.

The music mogul is said to have become hooked on an anti-ageing smoothie that he discovered while touring the U.S. for the American X Factor auditions recently.

The drink is believed to be identical to the ‘super smoothie’ developed by French scientists and revealed by the Daily Mail in May.

Cowell has a fresh helping of the juice made every day from ingredients including lingonberry, acerola berry and chokeberry (aronia berries), and he drinks it religiously.

It is said the X Factor judge got a taste for the smoothie in Miami, and a member of his staff had to make sure the unusual fruits were available in Dallas when he joined his fellow judges to film the talent show.

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From Daily Mail (Britain)

You’d have to be a graduate in fruitology to be familiar with all the ingredients.

But if you can track them down then you could have the recipe for a longer, healthier life.

Scientists say they have developed a cocktail of seven fruit juices that boosts health, cuts the risk of heart disease and stroke – and tastes good. The ‘super-smoothie’ contains grapes, apples, blueberries and strawberries.

However, there are exotic additions. These include the so-called superfoods cowberry (aka lingonberry) – a tart, red fruit related to the cranberry – and acerola, a red cherry-like fruit that has 30 times more vitamin C than orange juice.

The final ingredient of the smoothie is aronia, or chokeberry, an American blackberry once described as the ‘healthiest berry in the world’.

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