Crowberries health benefits includes treating dysentery, helping with kidney issues, curing acne, slowing down aging process, regulating menses, treating stomach issues and caring for the eyes. Other benefits includes controlling fever, treating epileptic seizures, treating paralysis, supporting weight loss, used as a food dye, controlling blood sugar and strengthening immune system.
What are Crowberries?
Crowberries are less heard of in many of the regions where all four seasons are enjoyed. This is because it grows in relatively colder climates. This is one of the many reasons it is little known outside the arctic regions. Areas including Europe, colder parts of Asia and North America enjoy an evergreen growth of this shrub. It is a small, round-shaped, juicy fruit from the berry family, which is dark black. The tree of this fruit also grows flowers of a purplish color, and its leaves are light green.
This small sized fruit comes with a range of health benefits and has long been used for cooking as well as therapeutic purposes in the Nordic countries. Rather acidic in taste, it gives a nice tinge of bitterness while at the same time offering a light aromatic smell. Nutritionally, crowberries consist of copious amounts of antioxidants, fiber, manganese, vitamin C, vitamin K, and copper.
They also contain high water content. The antioxidants in crowberries contain the highest oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC) compared to other fruits which have enabled it to be part of the new category of functional foods that have come to known as ‘superfoods.’
Some Tips for Using Crowberries
- Gently and thoroughly wash the crowberries
- Make sure that crowberries are firm, black in color, plump and uniform in size when you buy them.
- Fresh crowberries must be used for best results.
- Crowberries can be stored in a refrigerator for 10 to 15 days
- An airtight container must be used to store the crowberry leaves
- Unless used as a replacement for water, crowberry is not edible when it is raw. It becomes edible after having been boiled or cooked. Its bitter taste is caused by tannins which make it taste a little unpleasant.
16 Amazing Health Benefits of Crowberries
1. Dysentery Cure
Dysentery, an infection of the intestines manifested by severe diarrhea, can be treated by boiling some crowberries along with its stems in water. Especially consuming this solution can be very helpful in stopping the loose motions in diarrhea and for keeping the body hydrated.
2. Helping With Kidney Issues
Eating crowberries every day can be very beneficial in conditions where stones are formed in the kidney. Try consuming them at least for a month.
3. Acne Cure
Enriched with vitamin C like all other berries, it can be very helpful in curing blemishes, wrinkles, and acne. Mixing it with chick flour and making a face mask or even applying it in isolation can be very helpful to treat such conditions.
4. Anti- Aging
Free radicals develop in the skin as a person grows old. Due to high antioxidant content in crowberry, it helps one look younger, and their skin remains fresher as well intact.
5. Regulation of Menses
Crowberry leaves are considered to be strong uterine tonic as they regulate menses and also provide relief from excessive menstrual bleeding. It is considered to be the first line home remedy for such issues.
6. Treating Stomach Issues
For the treatment of stomach issues, boil crowberries and intake the soaked ones with one tablespoon of honey. This is an ideal remedy for constipation if continued for a month.
7. Use As Eye Wash
Eye problems such as conjunctivitis and others can be cured by soaking the roots of crowberry plant in water and washing the eyes with it.
8. Controlling Fever
Because they are astringent (slightly bitter) in nature, crowberry leaves and branches are used for the treatment of colds and fever.
9. Treating Epileptic Seizures
In Russia and some other parts of the world, crowberries are largely in use as a folk medicine for the treatment of epilepsy, anthrax and other nervous disorders that are caused by an imbalance in the firing of neurons in the brain. The Russian medicine discussed above is known as Empetrin, and it contains large amounts of crowberries to treat epilepsy.
10. Treating Paralysis
Due to its remarkable properties, nutritional values, and high water content, crowberry is known for providing a soothing and calming sensation to the nerves. This enables the body to develop more strength to treat paralysis and other nervous disorders of the kind on its own.
11. Ideal For Weight Loss
If you are aiming to reduce weight at a faster pace, crowberries are ideal for you. They are enriched with antioxidants which help in strengthening the functioning of the digestive system and improving metabolic rate, ultimately leading to faster weight loss. They also wash the harmful toxins out of the body because of heavy dietary fiber content in them. Therefore including this fruit in your daily diet regimen can be ideal for the overall health of the body.
Because of their high water content, they also have a strong diuretic effect inside the body which washes off the excess water stored by the body, thereby causing a decrease in weight.
12. Used As A Food Dye
Boiled crowberries serve the purpose of excellent food dye, and they are a crucial part of numerous scrumptious food recipes. Some of the delicious uses of raw crowberries include juicing them or using them to make wine, jellies, or other sweets. Akutaq is a kind of Eskimo’s ice cream and crowberries are eaten along with it.
13. Industrial Usage
Crowberries have a strong coloring ability, and therefore, they are also used as a natural dye in the textile industry which makes it an effective, less harmful alternative for the unnatural dyes. Because the crowberry plant is tough, the Nordics have also been widely using it as brooms and pan scrubbers.
14. Beauty Enhancing Products
With a shift in preference for beauty products- making the organic, nature-based skin and hair care products the top choice of consumers, crowberry enjoys a good reputation as a very useful ingredient for countless such products. Bursting with the goodness of vitamin C and antioxidants, crowberry remains the number one option for the enhancement of skin beauty.
15. Controlling Blood Sugar
Crowberry juice is very effective in controlling high blood sugar levels. When consumed on a daily basis, it proves to be highly effective not only in maintaining ideal blood sugar but also in prevention of the diseases that are caused by high blood sugar or diabetes.
16. Strengthening Immune System
Vitamin C strengthens, vitalizes and provides the necessary vigor to the immune system, making it stronger to fight with the harmful toxins inside the body. Crowberry is enriched with vitamin C, and thus it is a very useful little fruit to provide the immune system with necessary vitality and strength to fight the harmful foreign particles inside the body.
You can get all these health benefits and more by adding crowberries to your diet.