The Health & Nutrition Benefits of Summer Berries + Easy, Delicious Berry Recipes

diet

eieu5683 - 2025년 07월 17일

Discover the health and nutrition perks of strawberries, raspberries, boysenberries & blackberries—plus easy, delicious berry recipes for summer snacking, salads, desserts, and more!

Ah, sweet, sweet summer berries. Sweet, juicy, and bursting with nutrients, summer berries like strawberries, raspberries, boysenberries, and blackberries are more than just seasonal favorites—they’re nutritional powerhouses. Packed with antioxidant compounds, fiber, and vitamins, these vibrant fruits help support heart health, brain function, digestion, and glowing skin. Whether you toss them in smoothies, sprinkle them on salads, or bake them into healthy treats, berries are a delicious and versatile way to boost your summer wellness.

Berries at my local farmers market in Ojai.

Is there anything that can compare to the aroma and taste of berries, warmed by the sun and picked ripe off the vine? Indeed, nature reserved her best for berries, which grow both wild and on farms across the country during the warm summer months. These fruits, produced from the ovary of a flower, have important roles in the health of wildlife, as well as people. Just think that bears load up on berries before hibernation, and birds do the same before migration—both physically grueling endeavors. So, it’s no wonder that humans, dating back to prehistoric times, have understood the significance of berries for health, as well as taste. For example, Native Americans collected and dried berries, using them in many important dishes and for relief from illnesses. They were on to something, as these jewel-like berries are brimming with phytochemicals, which are responsible for their brilliant colors and health potential. While summer is really the time to go wild for berries, you can enjoy them year-round frozen and dried. I’m sharing tips and recipes on a few of my favorite summer berries: raspberries, boysenberries, blackberries, and strawberries.

Use berries in this super easy healthy recipe for Summer Fruit Skillet Cobbler.

Berry Culinary and Nutrition Guide

Berries (1/2 cup raw)	Nutritional Highlights*	Culinary Uses
Blackberries	Fiber, vitamins C and K, manganese	Enjoy fresh, top cereals, yogurt and salads; include in desserts and baked goods; preserve as jam.
Blueberries	Vitamins C and K, manganese	Eat fresh, add to cereals, yogurt, salads; puree into smoothies; include in baked desserts, pancakes and muffins. Available frozen, dried, and preserved as jam.
Boysenberries	Fiber, folate, manganese	Eat fresh or in cereals; include in baked desserts, muffins, and breads. Available frozen or preserved as jam.
Cranberries	Vitamin C, fiber, manganese	Enjoy in juice, sauce, relish, or dried. Mix into cereals, yogurt or salads; include in baked desserts and breads.
Raspberries	Fiber, vitamin C, manganese	Eat fresh as a snack; top cereals, yogurt, or puddings; add to salads, smoothies, and spreads; include in desserts and baked foods. Available frozen, dried, or preserved as jam.
Strawberries	Vitamin C, manganese	Enjoy fresh, as a snack; slice into cereals, salads, or smoothies; mix into puddings, pies, and frozen desserts. Available frozen and preserved as jam.

*Contains at least 10% DV

Raspberries

Fall in Love with Summer Berries! — Fresh raspberries I picked on a farm tour in Washington state.

Description:

Delicate, sweet red raspberries are one of our favorite berries, and they’ve been used by people as traditional health treatments throughout history. Named from the Latin word raspise, which means sweet rose-colored wine, raspberries originated in North Asia and Eastern Europe, but can grow in many places across the world; they especially love the growing conditions of the Pacific Northwest. Each raspberry (or blackberry, for that matter) is a marvelous collection of mini-fruits, each containing a single seed. They both grow on canes, which bear white-pink flowers which can self-pollinate, but get a helping hand from bees.

Nutrition & Health:

Raspberries are packed with nutrition for a skinny little calorie load—only 64 calories per 1-cup serving. Those seeds and skins boost the fiber content to 8 grams per serving—one of the highest sources of fiber in the fruit world. In addition, they provide omega-3 fatty acids (155 mg), vitamin C (54% DV), vitamin K (12% DV), and manganese (41% DV), and some contributions of folate, vitamin E, iron, calcium, magnesium, potassium, and copper. However, it’s those phytochemicals—anthocyanins, ellagic acid, quercetin, and catechins—in raspberries that have scientists intrigued. In combination with the vitamin C in raspberries, the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory profile is impressive. While there are many potential health benefits for eating raspberries, in particular they are really good for your heart in many ways. Eating raspberries can reduce chronic inflammation and oxidative stress, blood cholesterol levels, and blood pressure, and improve the health of blood vessels, and blood glucose levels.

How to Eat Them:

Raspberries are best enjoyed plain and simple—just pop them in your mouth as a fresh, seasonal fruit. However, they are also delicious over breakfast porridge bowls, baked in bars and cobblers, tossed into bright veggie salads, and served as an accompaniment for savory dishes. Try this raspberry salsa with tortilla chips or savory dishes for a new twist.

Boysenberries

Description:

A cross between raspberries, blackberries and dewberries, the boysenberry has an intriguing history, which dates back to Walter Knott (yes, of Knotts Berry Farm fame), who first commercially cultivated the large, reddish-purple berry, selling them at his California farm stand in 1932 and later making them into preserves that literally put him on the map. Classified under the blackberry family, boysenberries have soft skins and a tart-sweet flavor.

Nutrition & Health:

With only 66 calories per 1 cup serving, blackberries (which include boysenberries) are also packed with fiber at 8 grams per serving, as well as omega-3 fatty acids (135 mg), vitamin C (50% DV), vitamin K (36% DV), copper (12% DV), and manganese (47% DV). In addition, they have appreciable levels of vitamins A and E, folate, calcium, iron, magnesium, potassium, and zinc. Boysenberries are also potent in phytochemicals—namely anthocyanins, gallic acid, rutin, and ellagic acid. In fact, scientists call the blackberry family “the king of berries” because of their high levels of antioxidant compounds linked with their deep purple color. While boysenberries are certainly good for your heart, researchers are particularly intrigued about their potential cancer-fighting ability, as laboratory studies have shown berries in the blackberry family may slow or reverse the growth of certain types of cancers, including esophageal, colon, and breast.

How to Eat Them:

The dark purple-ruby rich color and flavor of boysenberries makes them a unique helper in the kitchen. Of course, they make beautiful classic pies and crisps and are delicious over pancakes or cereals, they are also great in sauces to accompany savory dishes, such as grain dishes. Boysenberries offer sweet flavor to kale or spinach salads and a blast of deep color to smoothies.

Blackberries

Description:

What could be better than a handful of glistening, deep-purple blackberries, perfectly sweet and ripe? You probably have memories of fighting the bees to pick blackberries on the summer vines, their flowery-sweet smell filling your nostrils, and purple-black juice staining your fingers (I know I do). But these gem-like berries offer much more than just good taste. Blackberries are packed with nutrition, and oh so versatile in the kitchen.

Nutrition & Health:

Blackberries contain nutrition properties that have been associated with protection against heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. Because of their high fiber content, eating blackberries can be extremely filling, helping to keep your blood sugars more stable. In fact, blackberries glycemic index is low (25). Their deep purple pigments come from a polyphenol called anthocyanin, which functions as a natural antioxidant because it helps protect cells from free radical damage. Blackberries are a low-carbohydrate fruit just jam-packed with great nutrients. Snacking on 1 cup of blackberries provides you with only 62 calories and 15 grams of carbohydrate, but it will also reap you 8 grams of fiber, 50% DV for vitamin C, 47% DV for manganese, and 36% DV for vitamin K.

How to Eat Them:

You just won’t believe how many things you can do with blackberries, too! These gorgeous berries are perfect for desserts, salads, baked goods, marinades, and even cocktails, and are stunning show-stoppers as either a main ingredient or a simple garnish. And by the way, can dogs eat blackberries? The answer is yes! These are superfoods for dogs, just like humans.

Strawberries

Description:

Is there anything quite like the sweet-nectar aroma of perfectly ripe strawberries mixed with a bit of warm earth on a sunny day? This description brings back vivid memories of my childhood, when I picked strawberries with my family in the Pacific Northwest at the nearby U-pick strawberry farm. The strawberry farm’s policy indicated you only had to pay for the amount of strawberries you picked and placed in the wooden crates (not your belly). So, oh how I gorged on the plumpest, ripest berries, toasty warm from the sun, letting the juices drip down my chin and onto my t-shirt! When it’s strawberry season—which lasts long in my neck of the woods in California, I just can’t get enough of these sweet, juicy berries. You will always find a flat in my fridge, which I will use in cereals, salads, dips, smoothies, and fruit desserts. Best of all, they are good as a super healthy snack plain and simple, just give them a quick rinse, and gobble them up.

Nutrition & Health:

Beyond amazing taste, they offer powerful nutrition. Strawberries—like all North American berries—are potent in plant compounds linked with health benefits. Not only are they packed with vitamin C and fiber, they are rich with disease-protective phytochemicals that lend them their bright red colors. A body of research shows show that strawberries can help fight inflammation, and reduce your risk of developing chronic diseases, such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, some types of cancer, and neurodegenerative diseases. That’s why I recommend eating berries, including strawberries, every single day. In fact, you may want to aim for 8-a-day of strawberries for good health. While they are in season, enjoy them as often as you can. But you can also turn to frozen (even dried strawberries) in the off-season.

Strawberry Spinach Salad with Vegan Feta and Balsamic Vinaigrette

How to Eat Them:

While strawberries are just plain delicious au natural, just munch on them for snacks or fruit platters, they are also delicious in cereals, smoothies, salads, sandwiches, baked goods like pies, cobblers, bars, and cakes, and even pizza!