Tag: sea buckthorn

Growing our own

An Update from David

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It hardly seems possible that this time last year we were planning out another year. A natural cycle of winter pruning, hoping for a successful pollination in March leading through to a new harvest in July.

A year on, and we are still thinking about that natural cycle, but life has changed. The natural cycle remains, but every customer now is a personal customer. We sell a very specialised fruit and every personal order values sea buckthorn so we need to nurture and ensure that quality is king.

The original concept of growing sea buckthorn was underpinned by its nutritional value. The historical context of it being valued as a traditional remedy for centuries added to its credibility. This tradition inspired plant breeders across the world to tame wild varieties. Wild or tame, the berries have the potential to be so much more than being a “little orange berry”.

As a grower we are committed to a natural cycle that provides a little more knowledge with every year that passes. We started with German and Finnish varieties back in 2009. These plants are now mature. The Finnish plants have been a challenge, but it was rewarding in 2020 when we could pick the variety Terhi for the first time. Like our Siberian plants, the Finnish ones did not enjoy our mild, wet weather. But success is sweet when it happens.

In 2012, with the help of the InCrops team at the University of East Anglia we imported our first Siberian plants. This was very exciting as these promised so much. Thornless, high yielding, better tasting, easier harvesting – the panacea of sea buckthorn growing.

In ten years we have seen only one crop of Siberian berries. Reality mellows initial enthusiasm, but not the determination to grow Siberian sea buckthorn. The consideration that moving plants across continents required them to adapt to a new climate and soil had not been factored into the original plan. 10 years on our learning curve has been steep and frustrating. Now in 2021 we are planting a new Siberian orchard with a new planting design to solve the barriers that have prevented Siberian success.

As we move forward in the orchard, we have been so fortunate to team up with Dr Lucy Williamson -who as a nutritionist is deciphering what sea buckthorn is.

Our fascination for sea buckthorn was driven by its nutritional potential. The 190 phytochemicals found in the berry drive the potential benefits, recognised over the centuries. We analyse our berries and the laboratory gives sheets of facts. Understanding what they mean is key to knowing what we are doing, why and how we can change our methods to improve berry quality.

Lucy’s speciality is gut health. This is not an area normally associated with sea buckthorn. We tend to think of health as a reaction to a disease or ailment. We should think more proactively of maintaining good health and this comes back to the ancient concept that food is health.

For food to be the driver of health it has to have the right qualities. Understanding what those are and why they are important is essential so as growers we focus on improving berry quality. Lucy is our key to developing the understanding of why sea buckthorn has the potential we believe it has. The gut is the place where our food is transformed into the vital nutritional building blocks the body needs. Understanding how it works is a new and complex science and with Lucy being specialist in this field will guide our focus as to how we grow to produce berry quality that relates to health.

nutrition

Vitamin C and Gut Health for strong Immune systems – two more reasons why British Sea Buckthorn is worth shouting about!

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Latest post by BSC’s registered nutritionist, Dr Lucy Williamson

At this time of year in the UK our immune systems are really in need of a boost. Starved of sunlight hours over the winter and more time spent indoors means we really need to choose foods which help us to develop a strong immune system. I had planned this blog on Vitamin C for exactly that reason… not knowing that 2020 would also bring along COVID-19, a new Coronavirus.

In his last blog post, David, Director at British Sea Buckthorn, mentions the importance of food for our overall health but also our Gut Health. As a Registered Nutritionist with a keen interest in gut health and with a family of my own to keep as healthy as I can over the winter, I feel well qualified to really shout out about a daily dose of British Sea Buckthorn to help keep the bugs at bay! And, David is quite right in saying “The concept (of gut health) is of such importance that it is becoming a subject we all need to understand”

So, in addition to focussing on Vitamin C for the second in this blog series, I’m also going to give the 101 on Gut bacteria for immune health, helping our immune systems be the best they can be.

Vitamin C – Our immune system, bones, skin & hair, blood vessels, teeth and nervous system are all dependent on it for their normal functioning and each cell in our body requires it to convert our fat stores into energy. We can’t build up stores of Vitamin C and unlike animals and plants, we’ve lost the ability to make our own. So, we’re totally dependent on our food to provide this water-soluble vitamin.

So why is Vitamin C needed by so many systems in our body?

Its properties are based on its ability to assist in many chemical reactions essential in our metabolism. It activates the enzymes required to make collagen – the basic building block of our skin, bones, teeth and hair. Enzyme activation by Vitamin C is also required to make hormones, particularly those which help us to respond to stress and to make neurotransmitters, the chemicals which send signals between nerve cells.

Vitamin C is well known for helping us resist infections like the common cold, but how?

Our immune system has a high demand for energy due to constant cell multiplication and their movement to wounds & cuts or to potential infection sites around the body. Vitamin C is pivotal here in providing this energy source through activating the enzyme, Carnitine, required in this process. Research has also demonstrated its essential role in enabling immune cells to kill bacteria and recover afterwards and also in the chemical signalling pathway which attracts immune system cells to the area in the body that needs them. In my last blog on Antioxidants I also mentioned how Vitamin C is required to make our own antioxidants to protect us against cell damage and therefore ensure our cells function correctly – especially important for the cells of our immune system.

100g of British Sea Buckthorn berries give 10 times the Vitamin C of an orange! Over the winter, I’ve been fuelling my family with British Sea Buckthorn smoothies made from the frozen berries. A zingy way to start the day!

The team at British Sea Buckthorn know that I’m passionate about Gut Health too.

How do our gut bacteria benefit our immune system?

British Sea Buckthorn is a source of Fibre – a type of carbohydrate that can’t be digested in the small intestine. Instead, it passes to the colon (large intestine) where it’s fermented by billions of gut bacteria to produce many compounds essential for our metabolism. Collectively, the genetic make-up of these bacteria is known as our ‘Microbiome’. With 150x our own genetic makeup, our microbiome is to be nurtured; in fact, our ratio of human cells to bacterial cells is 1:1 so we’re just as much bacteria as we are human! We now know these gut bacteria to be essential in the correct functioning of our immune system – over 80% of the cells which make up our immune system are located in the wall of our intestine. Gut bacteria here provide ‘exercise’ for our immune system cells, ensuring it develops correctly, almost working like a vaccine in fact. In 2016, The Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN), who report the findings of research studies to Public Health England, advised increasing the recommended intake of fibre for children (18g/day) and adults (30g/day), as a result of firm evidence for its health benefits, including its effect on our Microbiome. Sea Buckthorn is a good way to increase fibre intake.

Our gut bacteria also have an important role activating some of the antioxidants in British Sea Buckthorn, which as mentioned above, are also beneficial in boosting our immunity.

So, a daily dose of Sea Buckthorn certainly has the beneficial nutrients for a strong immune system. And, for anyone who missed the recent BBC episode of Countryfile, it’s also fabulous to know that by enjoying British Sea Buckthorn you’re also doing your bit for the environment by supporting their projects to enhance nature, biodiversity and wellbeing!

Next time – all you need to know about the products of Sea Buckthorn fibre fermentation by our gut bacteria, for our longer-term health and wellbeing.

References:

Sender, S., Fuschs, S., Milo, R (2016) Revised estimates for the number of human and bacteria cells in the body https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/036103v1

Valdes, A.M., Walter, J., Segal, F., Spector, T (2018) Role of the gut microbiota in nutrition and health British Medical Journal: 361 K2179

Growing our own

A Crucial Time of Year

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A blog post from David

Change is an issue that governs life. As another storm passed this weekend the sun has returned seeming to bring on spring. This is a crucial time of year for us. Our first research into sea buckthorn started in 2006. Then the challenge was from where to source plants. By 2009 we had the six German female varieties and three Finnish. Wild UK sea buckthorn we recognised as very thorny making picking a painful exercise. When it became apparent that thornless varieties had been bred in Siberia this had to be seen as the future. These varieties had been adopted in Canada and seemed to also offer higher yields, larger berries and higher natural sweetness.

Farming is about working within a natural environment to produce a natural product. The term – we are what we eat, makes growing sea buckthorn such an exciting prospect. Its berries, leaves and even its bark offer natural benefits that can help to preserve health.  The fact we are developing a healthy product makes us look to what consumers are wanting. As we move into a new year the food and drink experts put forward their ideas as to what is trending. There are no real surprises as trends evolve over time, but health does seem to be on most people’s minds. One trend relates to an aging population recognising how healthy food can influence mental and physical health. 40 to 54 years olds demand snack foods that satisfy hunger but also boost nutritional needs. Instant access to internet knowledge has made younger generations more knowing on quality. Maybe this is a factor in that choosing products that promote gut health is becoming mainstream.

Within this mix there has been no mention of the words natural, nor organic. I would like to believe that there is a link that healthy food tends to have fewer ingredients that are more traceable and that foods are becoming less processed and closer to their natural roots. We grow our sea buckthorn organically because it offers complete clarity in that it is a food that is a product of the natural environment. The nutrients within the berry have evolved over thousands of years that has been appreciated to provide a health benefit because of the ability for each nutrient to work in synergy with each other. If we introduced any additional chemicals into the growing environment we risk breaking that natural formulation.

At the start of this post I mentioned that this is a crucial time of year. For two years now the weather in early March has blown through our orchard and dispersed pollen, not between our male and female plants – but to the wind. No pollination means no fruit. So this coming week we will start a trial to put up windbreaks to break the wind tearing through the plants. It is another example that in farming, progress relates to the annual cycle. Each year exposes a problem – that can only be solved as the following year comes around.

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Sea Buckthorn for the long term

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David’s latest blog post.

David is a Director of the British Sea Buckthorn Company. 

I have often said that the sea buckthorn trial at Devereux farm is a 20 year project. The first ten years saw plants established but also lost to disease. The results are now – after ten years, developing with a cold store with a limited stock of frozen berries from the 2019 harvest. An evolution of progress.

The enthusiasm for sea buckthorn comes as being part of the global community of sea buckthorn growers, researchers, processors and manufacturers. Their collective investment has created expansion in production. Production, as I have found is not easy but the growth of a global sea buckthorn industry has taken 50 years to expand into 40 countries. For all the difficulties of establishing a growing crop – growing a market is an equal challenge, even for a crop based on significant nutritional quality.

Our health is key to being able to enjoy a normal life. Health is not a simple concept. It requires investment. Our personal investment managing our body’s functions has long term implications. Out of sight is often said to be out of mind. Appreciating the ability of our immune system to keep us healthy is easy just to accept. Our digestive system operates unseen, converting food to the vital mix of nutrients our complex body requires to function effectively. But how often do we actually buy food based on respecting the needs of our digestive system – even though it is our own personal system that maintains our own personal health.

There has been a quiet revolution developing in the nutrition world exposing the importance of the gut. There are tens of trillions of bacteria that live in our gut. A multi-functional soup of incredible complexity forming a balanced mechanism that breaks down food into constituent nutrients. This balance of species in this vast population is critical. This is not something of convenience, it is like a Ferrari, fine-tuned for peak performance. Put diesel in your petrol car and you pay for the consequences both by looking foolish and having to repair the damage.

I say all this because I understand the gut microbiome concept but not the detail. The concept is of such importance that it is becoming a subject I need to understand. As I get older I am appreciating the need for good health to allow a quality of life at work and at home.

Within so many issues the word balance is so importance. It is a pet subject of mine but I often reflect back on the Galenic way of life. A set of principles based on times when medicine was rudimentary so personal responsibility to one’s own health was essential. It suggests five principles of the food/drink we consume; the right amount of exercise; working in a positive environment; good sleep and good mental health as forming the basis of preserving our health. There is a sixth principle that requires each being proportionally balanced. A rational approach and one that can work even in the stressful world of 2020.

An interest in food takes you in many directions. Being a farmer in 2020 is concentrating my mind on significant changes coming post-Brexit for our industry. With great change comes the need for ensuring that you fully understand all the implications of change before decisions become irreversible. The current debate around how to feed a growing global population, together with the need to adapt to climate change will require all of us to change – but often evolution is better than revolution. Maintaining a balanced debate, taking all opinions into account and using compromise to bring everyone along a path of change achieves the progress that we really need to solve these issues.

nutrition

British Sea Buckthorn – Natural Antioxidants to boost your every-day detox – a simple solution to staying healthy this winter

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2020 sees the start of our new blog series by our registered Nutritionist Dr Lucy Williamson. Here Lucy talks about the important role of antioxidants in combating the stress of busy lives and how using British Sea Buckthorn can provide an answer.

The British Sea Buckthorn Company are starting 2020 fully organically certified and with hopes of a juiced berry product to add to those already available here.  Having enjoyed frozen berries directly from the British Sea Buckthorn Company in Essex this winter, my family have so far had the healthiest winter on record! Juicing the berry will produce a concentrated source of all its nutrients – read on to find out why its antioxidants are a fabulous and natural way to boost your health this winter…

‘Detox’ – a familiar word in January!

After a little over-indulgence over the festive season there’s often a desire for a ‘detox’ to get the year off to a healthy start…  In fact, our everyday metabolism, in using oxygen, is constantly producing potentially toxic by-products known as free radicals, unstable compounds which if not removed from the body, lead to cell damage, a process known as Oxidative Stress. External stressors such as lack of sleep, illness, medications, poor diet and lifestyle and even hard workouts at the gym are also known to increase oxidative stress.  Research is now showing this potential cell damage, which is basically the ageing process, to be both a cause and a consequence of chronic illness – oxidation of cholesterol ‘packages’ within the blood stream causing damage to blood vessel walls leading to heart disease and oxidation of cell DNA being a precursor to Cancer. Obesity, Type 2 Diabetes and Cancer also result in a higher level of oxidative stress in the body. Detoxification is the process by which antioxidants remove these potential toxins from the body and so optimise our long-term health.1, 2

The Good News?

Our body is actually detoxifying all the time! This is a key role of our liver and kidneys with our skin, digestive system and lungs also playing their part. It’s essential that we eat foods that provide our bodies with the nutrients it needs to manufacture antioxidants for this process, such as Vitamins E (tocopherols) and A (Carotenoids). Unlike other nutrients, we can’t store antioxidants, so continuous manufacture is really important. Many foods, mainly of plant origin, also supply ‘ready-made’ antioxidants (also known as phytonutrients or bioactives). British Sea Buckthorn may be a small berry but it’s packed full of polyphenols and many other types of antioxidants!

How do Antioxidants protect against cell damage?

Many of the antioxidants in Sea Buckthorn produce their effect at the cellular level by altering how genes within the cell’s DNA are expressed, favouring the production of proteins required to make antioxidant enzymes. This process by which our gene expression can be altered by nutrition or other external environmental factors is known as Epigenetics and is currently the subject of exciting and rapidly growing research.

Generally, our body produces enough antioxidants to keep Oxidative Stress under control but if we’re exposed to stressors for a longer period of time which can happen for example during illness, with prolonged medicines, during intense physical exercise or from a lack of sleep, our antioxidant need is higher, therefore additional antioxidants from our food are beneficial. Boosting our antioxidants at this time of year especially, with antioxidant-rich food, is a great idea.

From a strong Immune system to help against ageing, Type 2 Diabetes and other chronic disease and a healthy glow, why not detox the natural way!

There are many types of antioxidants in our food, coming mainly from plants, giving them their colour to attract insects for pollination and protect them from stressors like UV light and disease. Berries, citrus fruit, brightly coloured vegetables, cocoa, coffee, tea, chocolate and red wine are all well-known (and rather tasty!) sources.

Sea Buckthorn antioxidants include Flavanoid polyphenols, Carotenoids (used to make Vitamin A) including Lycopene (also in tomatoes and thought to be key to the benefits of the Mediterranean diet), exceptionally high levels of Tocopherols (Vitamin E) and Superoxide Dismutase. Vitamins E, A and C in sea buckthorn are also used by our body cells to make our own antioxidants as well as their own roles as Vitamins. In preventing cell damage from oxidative stress mentioned above, these antioxidants ensure the many cells that make up our different body systems, function correctly. Of particular importance are the cells which line our blood vessels known as endothelial cells. These have an essential role in keeping blood pressure down and maintaining healthy blood vessel membranes; cell damage here increasing the risk of blood clots, heart disease and stroke in later life. Vitamin E is particularly important in the correct functioning of these cells and also our skin cells. The cells of our immune system have many different functions in fighting infection and controlling inflammation. Exposure to oxidative stress greatly reduces their ability to do this; antioxidants however ensure cell damage here is kept to a minimum and therefore promote best possible functioning of our immune system.  Superoxide Dismutase is a powerful enzyme antioxidant required and made by nearly by all living cells to protect them against cell damage from superoxide, a toxic, free radical produced in many metabolic reactions. British Sea Buckthorn provides a fabulous source to boost our supplies!

Sea Buckthorn vs Supplements?    

 

Research shows us that nutrients often work together to benefit each other. British Sea Buckthorn is a fabulous example with its multitude of nutrients all working together to enhance their overall effect. Vitamins E and A in particular are well known to work in synergy with each other increasing their protective function. Bioactives in whole food containing Polyphenol antioxidants are currently thought to increase the polyphenol antioxidant ability. Taking these nutrients out of their natural food and using as supplements may not be how nature intended. Research in mice has shown that too high a dose of a single antioxidant can lead to heart muscle damage.3

Polyphenol Antioxidants – Gut Health, Obesity and beyond

Our gut microbes – beneficial bacteria present in our large intestine, are known to be essential in the activation and absorption of polyphenol antioxidants. Current research is studying the products of this microbial polyphenol digestion (fermentation), which appear to promote further beneficial bacteria in our gut. A healthy gut microbiome is now known to have many long-term health benefits including reducing the risk of inflammatory disease, allergy, some types of cancer including bowel cancer, Type 2 Diabetes, overweight and obesity. Epidemiology, the study of population groups over a period of time, shows us that those with a higher intake of polyphenols have a reduced risk of obesity. Of course this may in part be due to a diet rich in polyphenol antioxidants being healthier overall, but some types of polyphenol antioxidants are known to reduce our ability to absorb sugars and store fat.4

Nutrient-rich and protecting biodiversity too…

The best food choices not only nurture human health but support the biodiversity of our ecosystems, from healthy soils to thriving flora and fauna with essential roles to play in maintaining nature as it should be. The British Seabuckthorn company nurture these principles and over the next few months we’ll be sharing with you all the need-to knows about this fabulous novel food. Busy, active lifestyles require nutrient-rich foods – there may be little spare time in the day to discover new natural, sustainable & functional food. As a registered Nutritionist, I’m happy to be on this journey working with the British Sea buckthorn Company to share the good news on this nutrient-rich crop with all its potential health benefits, responsibly farmed in Essex! Add these bright orange berries of happiness into your breakfast bowl, as dried berries into your nutty mix, drizzle rays of golden sea buckthorn oil over winter salads or with yogurt as a warm porridge topper and enjoy a cup of sea buckthorn tea too!

References:

  1. Williamson G (2017) The role of polyphenols in modern nutrition. Nutr Bulletin 42: 226-235
  2. Croy C et al (2018) The Role of Polyphenols in Human Health and Food Systems: A Mini-Review Frontiers in Nutrition 5, 87
  3. Rajasekaran NS et al. (2007) Human aB-Crystallin Mutation Causes Oxido-Reductive Stress and Protein Aggregation Cariomyopathy in Mice Cell; 130:427–439
  4. Williamson G (2013) Possible effects of dietary polyphenols on sugar absorption and digestion. Mol Nutr and Food Research 57: 48-57
Growing our own

Update from the Field

britishseabuckthorn

David, who is in charge of managing our sea buckthorn field at Devereux Farm gives his update on what has been a difficult year in the field.

 

The New Year is a time for reflection and positive planning. I have to admit that it feels good to see 2019 behind us. The year started well with the building of our prototype harvesting system; purchase of a sprayer for applying foliar feeds; and the end of three years of transition to becoming fully organic certified. It was marred however by strong winds in March 2018 which created poor pollination resulting in a small, patchy crop of Siberian berries. This is the second year this has happened and it is a direct consequence of moving a plant from the cold climate of Siberia to our mild coastal weather. In effect it is an example of climate change but critically it is one that we can influence and the fact that we have seen good harvests from these plants in previous years shows that it was just one of those years.

Our harvesting method is now cutting branches, then freezing them in a cold store to -25 deg C. The branches are then put through our prototype berry separator. This removes the berries from the branches but some varieties, such as the Siberian Klaudia and Latvian plants carry a lot of leaf resulting in not all leaf being removed from the berries. So one project for 2020 is to modify the separator to refine the clearing process.

Choosing to harvest by branch cutting means that we need to prune our plants so they will be cut on a three or four year cycle. If plants are only going to be harvested once in three or four years it means we need to triple the size of our orchard. It was for that reason that we imported 4000 new plants from Siberia this autumn. This might sound simple but importing plants is a highly controlled process. Procedures are in place to prevent importing dangerous plant diseases into the country. It took 18 months to ensure the plants came from a certified disease free source – but better safe than sorry.

2019 has been a year of odd weather. By the end of September there had been no rain and the ground was baked hard. Since then it has not stopped and the soil is sodden. The unpredictability of weather was almost as trying as the activities of our politicians throughout the year. Brexit became a painful distraction through 2019 and at last it feels that we can now move on.

So for 2020 – again the Siberian variety Klaudia started to open its buds this week. By mid-February all varieties will be showing enough leaf to have their first spray feed. The ladurner cultivator will start to control the weeds under the plants as soon as the soil is dry enough. We will be extending our audio system to keep the jackdaws away, and trialling wind breaks to improve pollination. The focus for so long has been on growing sea buckthorn, but this year we will start product trials, juicing berries from which to offer British grown, organic sea buckthorn products, which we hope will be good news to those of you looking for a British product!

Wishing you a happy and healthy New Year.

 

 

nutrition

British Seabuckthorn – a small berry with a big story to tell for Millennials!

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To explain all about the benefits of our sea buckthorn, we’ve teamed up with Registered Nutritionist Dr Lucy Williamson –

Busy, active lifestyles require nutrient-rich foods especially when combined with the stress of professional careers and demands of family life. There may be little spare time in the day to discover new natural, sustainable & functional food, planetary-health values which are becoming key in making great food choices. As a registered Nutritionist, I’m happy to be on this journey working with the British Seabuckthorn Company to share the good news on this nutrient-rich crop with all its potential health benefits, responsibly farmed in Essex!

Add these bright orange berries of happiness into your breakfast bowl, as dried berries into your nutty mix, drizzle rays of golden sea buckthorn oil over winter salads or with yoghurt as a warm porridge topper and enjoy a cup of seabuckthorn tea too!oxygen

Nutrient-rich and protecting biodiversity too…

The best food choices not only nurture human health but support the biodiversity of our ecosystems, from healthy soils to thriving flora and fauna with essential roles to play in maintaining nature as it should be. The British Seabuckthorn company nurture these principles and over the next few months we’ll be sharing with you all the need-to knows about this fabulous novel food.

The berries of sea buckthorn are a powerhouse of more than 190 nutrients, packed with antioxidants, vitamins & minerals, Omega oils, plant sterols and there’s plenty of fibre too. These nutrients all work in synergy with each other ensuring we get the maximum benefit to our health from this functional, natural food. And there’s potential for little waste in farming sea buckthorn – these nutrients are found in the berry, peel, pulp and seed – take a look here to search the different products available from different parts of the plant.

Top 5 Nutrients to talk about…

We want to share the good news on 5 sea buckthorn nutrients not only essential for every-day health and wellbeing & busy lifestyles but great for sports and longer-term health too. Stay tuned to this blog series over the coming months for further details on each.

Antioxidants

A brief bit of science! Our body is detoxifying all the time; our every-day metabolism involves each body system using Oxygen to function. This constantly produces a by-product called Reactive Oxygen Species, or ROS – toxic, unstable chemicals which have the potential to cause cell damage if not removed or detoxified. Cleverly we make our own antioxidants to do this but stress, lack of sleep, exercising muscles, pollutants, medications and many more factors often increase our demand for antioxidants. Cell damage is the start of the ageing process and the forerunner to many types of chronic disease so making sure we have plenty of antioxidants in our food is a priority! Sea buckthorn is packed with a wide range of antioxidants including flavanoids and beta carotene, a type of Vitamin A. On top of this, its exceptionally high levels of Vitamin E and C ensure we can make enough of our own antioxidants, like superoxide dismutase, great for healthy skin and hair but vital in protecting us from longer term health risks like heart disease. Sea buckthorn contains high levels of this antioxidant too – one of the reasons why it’s not only fabulous for our own health but is widely used for racehorses to counter the negative effects of strenuous racing. They develop a fabulous shiny coat too; the Greeks noticing this effect in horses grazing ancient sea buckthorn, named it Hippophae Rhamnoides, or ‘shiny horse’.

Vitamin C

When life is busy & active (with the added sleepless nights of parenting perhaps!) we use a lot of Vitamin C in our food to make antioxidants which can mean there’s less available for a strong immune system. Going into winter especially, we need a Vitamin C boost – 100g of sea buckthorn berries have 10 times the Vitamin C of an orange! Plenty of Vitamin C in our diet also ensures Iron in plants is bioavailable for us – without Vitamin C we can’t absorb plant-based Iron; unlike ‘haem’ iron from animals which is readily absorbed. A great, natural way to help protect against iron deficiency in teenage years, and beyond into pregnancy.

Omega 3

Sea buckthorn is a fabulous source of several Omegas; finding a good source of plant Omega 3, ALA, is always a winner as it’s generally low in our UK diet and we need a lot of it from plants to begin to get near the health benefits that come from the types of Omega 3 in fish, DHA and EPA. More on this in 2020…

What about Gut Health?

Don’t forget being a source of fibre, sea buckthorn helps nurture our microbiome to optimise Gut Health. These beneficial bacteria have many other longer-term benefits for our health too!

British Seabuckthorn is an exciting story of a nutrient-rich, sustainable food, and the British Seabuckthorn team are more than a little excited to share this with you! Follow us to find out more over the next few months, try our recipes and products and please fire feedback, ideas and questions our way!

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Sea Buckthorn – a rich source of antioxidants

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Thoughts from our registered nutritionist, Lucy Williamson DVM BVM&S MSc

It’s almost a year since I began working with British Seabuckthorn – as a Registered Nutritionist with a particular interest in sustainable foods, healthy for people and planet, this journey is an exciting one… British Seabuckthorn (BSB), responsibly farmed in Essex, contains an abundance of nutrients vital for long-term health and wellbeing. Packed with antioxidants, natural prebiotics, vitamins, minerals, unsaturated oils and many other beneficial phytonutrients, it’s a berry with fabulous potential.

The best food choices not only nurture human health but support the biodiversity of our ecosystems too, from healthy soils to thriving flora and fauna with essential roles to play in maintaining nature as it should be. So, as the British Sea Buckthorn Company nurture these principles in continuing to work hard to develop a crop adapted to our rather unpredictable British climate, here are a few ‘need-to-knows’ about British Sea Buckthorn!

A rich source of antioxidants 

Our everyday metabolism uses oxygen. By-products of this process are known as free radicals, which can cause damage to cells in a process known as Oxidative Stress – a key factor in ageing and chronic illness such as heart disease, stroke and cancer. We produce antioxidants all the time in our body cells which, by removing these radicals, keep our cells healthy. Many of the antioxidants we make require Vitamins C and E and British Sea Buckthorn is an excellent source of both. Our recommended daily intake of Vitamin C is 45mg; British Sea Buckthorn often contains more than 400mg/ 100g so it’s a very rich source! (current regulations concerning nutrient claims state a food must contain more than 24mg/ 100g to be ‘high in’ Vitamin C, EU Regulation No 1047/2012) Oxidative stress is higher in Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes so antioxidant need increases here too as it does after endurance or high intensity sport. BSB also contains other, powerful antioxidants including Superoxide Dismutase and Flavanoid polyphenols which have an important role in nurturing our all-important gut bacteria too.

As well as eating a more plant-based diet, we’re encouraged to eat fish at least twice weekly in order to benefit from its Omega 3 unsaturated oils. Many years of firm evidence now show the links between a good intake of Omega 3 and protection against heart disease and stroke in particular due to its anti-inflammatory role. Fish contains particularly beneficial types of Omega 3, DHA and EPA. These aren’t present in plants but a good intake of plant

Omega 3 (ALA)

Omega 3 can be used by the body to make EPA and DHA. Too much Omega 6 in the diet can restrict this process but as sea buckthorn contains far more Omega 3 than Omega 6, it has real potential here too.

Seabuckthorn as a natural Prebiotic: Fibre

FIBRE is a type of carbohydrate that can’t be digested in the small intestine. Instead, it passes to the colon (large intestine) where it’s fermented by billions of gut bacteria to produce many compounds essential for our metabolism. Collectively, the genetic make-up of these bacteria is known as our ‘Microbiome’. With 150x our own genetic makeup, our microbiome is to be nurtured; in fact, our ratio of human cells to bacterial cells is 1:1 so we’re just as much bacteria as we are human! We now know these gut bacteria have key roles in our long-term health, from optimising our immune system to protection against certain types of cancer and weight control. In addition, fibre maintains our ‘digestive health’, helping food to pass more quickly through the gut. In 2016, Public Health England, advised increasing the recommended intake of fibre for children (18g/day) and adults (30g/day), as a result of firm evidence for its health benefits, collected over several years. Sea buckthorn, along with other fruit and veg (diversity is the key to good microbes!) is a great source of fibre and also flavanoid antioxidants mentioned earlier, both of which are an important energy source for our microbiome and our gut health.

With an abundance of nutrients, too many to mention here, I’m excited to be involved with the British Sea Buckthorn story as we work together towards a sustainable food choice with so many potential benefits to our longer-term health.