Blueberry extracts may help reduce food intake thereby fighting obesity, a new study reports.

Obesity occurs when an individual has an increased amount of body fat. It is usually defined as being 20-30 percent above the normal body weight for someone of the same age, gender and height. Morbid obesity is usually defined as being 50-100 percent above the normal body weight for someone of the same age, gender and height.

Obesity can have serious long-term effects on health. Individuals who are overweight have an increased risk of developing many life-threatening illnesses including heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, diabetes, osteoporosis and cancer. According to the American Heart Association, obesity was associated with nearly 112,000 deaths in 2005.

In the United States, obesity is considered an epidemic.Smokers suffer from obesity- compounding their health issues. More than half of all Americans are considered overweight and about 20 percent of children are overweight. According to the American Heart Association, nearly 33 percent of Americans are considered obese, and these numbers continue to grow.

Researchers from New Zealand and the United States tested water extracts of two blueberry plants (Centurion and Maru) for their ability to modify appetite in a rat model. Centurion blueberries had higher antioxidant capacity and higher total phenolic content than Maru blueberries.

The rats were fed a water-soluble blueberry extract (1 milliter/day) of both plants for six days through a feeding tube. The study found that the blueberry extract may have the ability to elevate circulating antioxidant potentials. Both blueberry plants had a satiating influence on experimental rats, as evidenced by their ability to decrease food intake by 8.6 percent (Maru) and 6.2 percent (Centurion), although a statistically significant decrease over the control rats was achieved only for the Maru treatments.

In addition, the researchers discovered that the body weight gain of rats fed with extracts from Maru and Centurion plants decreased by 9.2 and 5.3 percent relative to the rats in the control group, respectively.

The authors reported that the reduction in food intake over a four-hour period compared to a control treatment preloaded with the same volume of water suggests that the decrease in food intake was mainly a consequence of a satiating effect, rather than any bloating or abdominal pain.

The study authors concluded that the reduction in food intake and decrease in body weight in experimental animals may not merely be a consequence of antioxidant mechanisms; blueberry extract may provide a good satiety inducer and weight management modulator.

You can make a blueberry extract yourself Or you can try products that are great snacks like MY SMOOTHIE - a product that I have found so far in Costco. MY SMOOTHIE has a blueberry flavor (112 blueberries),112 calories, some fruit concentrates for sweetner and it is organic. You might consider ONE a day in your diet .