The Health Benefits Of Black Currant

This was something I was totally unaware of, so I am guessing many of you are unaware of it too.

After the tennis clinic this morning, I stopped by Whole Foods to grab some sushi. I also got some ice cream and whipped cream. I have been jonesing for a warm brownie sunday. I mean, I really want one. I explained this to Laura in great detail last night. Ruby Tuesday makes the best one I have ever had, but I am not at Ruby Tuesday, so I have to handle this myself.

I got what I needed and was ready to go to the checkout counter, when I realized that I was a little thirsty. I usually just drink water because buying drinks is a huge rip-off, but I figured that since the sushi was going to cost so much anyway, what’s wrong with treating myself to a little juice? I walked over to the juice area and lifted my hand to pick up a small “Pom” pomegranate bottle. My hand got about half way to the product, when I noticed that the little bottle cost $3.89. What??? That was out of the question. Then, I saw another store brand pomegranate drink and actually picked this one up. It was only $2.99, but still a very small bottle. I decided to put that back down when I saw a 2 quart bottle of black currant juice for lest than $3. That was more along the lines of what I was looking for. I basically bought it because the label said that black currant is high in anti-oxidants.

After I left the car and started driving, I cracked that bottle open and gave my new juice a taste. It tasted different, but pretty good. I continued drinking for the rest of the ride.

When I got back to the house, I decided to do a little research on the health benefits of the black currant. As it turns out, the black currant is a pretty healthy food to eat.

Now, let me be clear – the black currant is very healthy, but the drink that I got has a lot of sugar in it. I’m sure if I spent a heck of a lot more money, I could have gotten a more “pure” juice. For my purposes, this did the job.

You can read up of the blackcurrant over here and check out the health benefits here, but let me just tell you that it has an extraordinarily high vitamin C content, good levels of potassium, phosphorus, iron and vitamin B5, and a broad range of other essential nutrients (I got that from Wikipedia). It treats diseases, ailments and aches. From what I read on Wikipedia, it’s pretty neat.

I really wish you would read about it. There is a long story about how the black currant was banned from being grown in the U.S. because of the threat it was to the logging industry. It’s pretty interesting reading. Who knew that a fruit was banned from being grown over here? Now that it’s back and grown in New York, Vermont, Connecticut and Oregon, it’s getting some traction again, but still remains fairly unknown.

Well, there you have it. A new food that is really good for you. Next time you are in that expensive juice aisle, you might want to check out the black currant.