Partridge Berry
Prior to heading to Newfoundland, I dreamt of foraging loads of blueberries and chanterelles. In my mind, they were the iconic Newfoundland foraged foods. Then, I was introduced to the partridgeberry.
Newfoundland has generally poor soil and short/unpredictable growing seasons, meaning that most fruits and vegetables need to be imported.
To make matters more complicated, electricity was not widely available before the 1950s so food had to be preserved by salting, smoking, pickling, or canning.
This made access to vitamin rich foods such as fresh fruit and vegetables scarce and resulted in frequent malnutrition. This increased prevalence of diseases such as scurvy, rickets, and beriberi.
These factors made people dependent upon local ingredients and diets were improved by foraging berries such as blueberries and partridgeberries, that are rich in minerals, vitamins, anthocyanins, and polyphenols.
The consumption of partridgeberries played a critical role in the reduction of occurrence of diseases caused by malnutrition such as scurvy.
Partridgeberry (Vaccinium vitis-idaea) is a low trailing shrub with fuzzy white flowers that grow in pairs forming one red berry per pair.
They are rich in antioxidants, manganese, vitamin C, vitamin E, and certain plant compounds, such as anthocyanins and quercetin making it anti-inflammatory, and cardiovascular protective.
I was fortunate to learn with local cod fisherman on Fogo Island.
One mentioned to me that he was suffering from gout and asked for my advice.
Seeing how difficult it was to buy good food at grocery stores in Newfoundland and how expensive things were due to the cost of importing, I knew it wasn’t going to be as easy as recommending supplements. He was on an island off an island.
I believe that treatment must be individualized and match people’s lifestyles so I went home that night to rack my brain.
Gout is a form of arthritis, inflammation in the joint. It is characterized by sudden, severe attacks of pain, swelling, and redness in the joints, often at the base of the big toe.
Gout occurs when urate crystals accumulate in the joint, causing inflammation. Urate crystals can form if high levels of uric acid are present in blood.
With that in mind, treatment is focused on lowering uric acid levels and inflammation.
Foods to avoid are those rich in purines, as they raise uric acid levels, and include:
Alcohol
Some fish, seafood and shellfish, including anchovies, sardines, herring, mussels, codfish, scallops, trout and haddock
Some meats, such as bacon, turkey, veal, venison and organ meats like liver
As a Fogo cod fisherman, the bulk of his diet is seafood. I knew it was a no-go to recommend he avoid seafood, as it is the best quality protein he has access to.
So aside from increasing water intake to help elimination, what else? Research has shown that intake of anthocyanins: powerful antioxidants that have strong anti-inflammatory action, can reduce gout pain and frequency of attacks.
Most research on anthocyanins has been via tart cherries. But what else is high in anthocyanins? Partridgeberries.
Got me thinking about how amazing it is that where cod is abundant and a dietary staple, so are partridgeberries, and that the traditional Newfoundland diet put such emphasis on both.
Now that the tradition of foraging/eating partridgeberries is being lost, I wonder if the frequency of gout has increased in this population. Food for thought.
Dr. Cristina Allen ND