LONDON - Consuming a cup of wild blueberries daily for two weeks can help the body burn more fat during exercise, according to a new study.

The research, published recently in the journal Nutrients, is the first to examine the fat-burning effects of wild blueberries during exercise in non-elite athletes.

The blueberries can help accelerate fat oxidation in the body, the process by which fatty acid molecules are broken down for energy, found scientists, including those from the California Polytechnic State University in the US.

However, citing some of the limitations of the study, researchers said it included only 11 males and no women.

They said further research and including more participants can help verify the results and shed more light on the fat-burning effects of the berries.

The 11 healthy, aerobically trained males were instructed to follow a diet that included consuming 25 grams of freeze-dried wild blueberries each day for two weeks.

Each participant exercised on a bike for 40 minutes at Cal Poly Humboldt’s Human Performance Lab, and their urine and blood samples were collected before and after cycling. Their blood samples were collected every 10 minutes during the workout as well.