Wild blueberry drink and thinking skills in 7 to 10 year olds
What it found
In 54 children aged 7 to 10, a wild blueberry drink improved some memory and attention measures 2 hours later, but did not improve reading.
The children who drank it recalled more words and reacted faster on one attention task than those who took a placebo.
What they found
Studies in people
Attention speed
On a computer attention task, children who had the wild blueberry drink reacted faster than those who had the placebo on the quickest trials (120 milliseconds), without making more mistakes. There was no difference on the slower 500 millisecond trials.
Verbal memory
Children who drank the wild blueberry drink remembered more words than the placebo group on a short delay recall test and on a measure of how many words they learned across repeated lists. The placebo group's memory declined over the session, while the blueberry group's stayed about the same.
Reading ability
There was no difference between the groups in how many words or non-words they could read correctly in 45 seconds. The authors note the children were already good readers, so the results may not apply to children with different reading levels.
Accuracy on attention task
The wild blueberry drink did not change how accurately the children did the attention task. Both groups were more accurate on easier trials than on harder ones.
What the authors conclude
“Consumption of WBB was found to significantly improve memory and attentional aspects of EF.”
Also in their conclusions
- They conclude that a flavonoid-rich blueberry product, equivalent to 240 g or 1½ cups of fresh blueberries, can provide acute cognitive benefits in children.
- They state that these findings support accumulating evidence that flavonoid-rich products are beneficial for healthy brain function, particularly during critical developmental periods.
- They suggest that the lack of findings for reading ability indicates a single dose may not be enough to benefit reading, and that longer-term supplementation and more sensitive reading tests should be considered in future research.
How it was done
Previous studies suggested that flavonoids from berries may improve thinking skills, and a wild blueberry drink had already been linked to better memory and attention in children of this age. The authors wanted to confirm which aspects of memory and attention are affected, and to test whether a single dose could also help reading.
They recruited 54 healthy children aged 7 to 10 from two primary schools. Each child drank either a 200 ml wild blueberry drink (made from 30 g freeze-dried wild blueberry powder, equal to 240 g or 1½ cups of fresh blueberries, and containing 253 mg anthocyanins) or a sugar-matched placebo, then completed memory, attention and reading tasks at baseline and 2 hours later.
What it can’t tell you
- This was a single dose study, so it cannot show whether drinking wild blueberry regularly would have different effects.
- The children were all good readers, so the reading results may not apply to children who read at a different level.
- The study cannot show how wild blueberry might affect thinking over a longer period or in real-world learning.
Who paid
- Conflicts
- The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
- Authors work at
- University of Reading, UK; University of London, UK
The paper
- Title
- The effects of acute wild blueberry supplementation on the cognition of 7-10-year-old schoolchildren
- Type
- Randomised controlled trial
- Evidence
- Studies in people
- Summarised from
- Full text
- Cite
- Barfoot KL, May G, Lamport DJ, Ricketts J, Riddell PM, Williams CM (2019). The effects of acute wild blueberry supplementation on the cognition of 7-10-year-old schoolchildren. European journal of nutrition. doi:10.1007/s00394-018-1843-6Free full textPubMed 30327868DOI
Summary written 26 Sep 2026. Check it against the paper before it changes what you eat. How we summarise papers · Report an error