A feast for the eyes as well as the palate, strawberries are one of nature’s most beautiful and delicious fruits. They also happen to be a great, low-calorie addition to a healthy lifestyle, packing enough vitamin C, manganese, and fiber for a berry nutritional punch.
Strawberries are a tasty, low-calorie treat (49 calories per serving), but it doesn’t even take much to reap their nutritional benefits. Just one cup of the dimpled diva more than satisfies the daily requirement for vitamin C (75 milligrams per day for women and 90 for men). An 8-ounce serving also packs more than a quarter of the suggested daily value of manganese, along with a respectable 3 grams of dietary fiber.
GOOD FOR EYES AND CONTROL CHOLESTEROL LEVELS
The star player in strawberries is vitamin C, an antioxidant that helps build and repair the body’s tissues, boosts immunity, and fights excess free radical damage. Studies also suggest vitamin C promotes healthy eye function and might even inhibit wrinkle formation. In one recent study, researchers found the specific antioxidant content in strawberries might help control cholesterol levels. Participants with high cholesterol who were given a diet rich in strawberries showed a reduction in LDL ("bad") cholesterol similar to a control group given oat bran supplementation. Combined with its high vitamin content, strawberries' cholesterol-checking effect makes this fruit a dietary dual threat (triple, if you count taste).
A HEALTHY PART OF DIABETIC DIET
Strawberries provide carbohydrates to your body. If you have diabetes, you must pay careful attention to how many and what kind of carbs you eat. Carbs convert to glucose with the help of a special hormone called insulin. Glucose is your body’s primary energy source, but diabetics have trouble with their insulin and can have too much glucose circulating in the body. By eating too many carbohydrates, you may be consuming more glucose than a diabetic body can handle. This is the primary concern of diabetics with eating fruit such as strawberries. However, carbs are an important nutrient, and a half-cup of strawberries provides only about 6 g of carbs. You simply need to account for the carbs of strawberries in your total carb intake for the day. Moreover, strawberries score a 40 on the glycemic index, a measure of how quickly carbs act on your blood sugar and insulin as they are digested. Any score lower than 55 is considered "low," meaning the food is slowly absorbed and healthier for a diabetic diet.
The National Diabetes Education Program recommends eating strawberries as part of a plan to increase fruits and vegetables and lower your weight. Weight control is an important part of managing diabetes; it can also help resolve pre-diabetes.
PREVENT CANCER
When it comes to preventing cancer, can strawberries really make a difference? Absolutely! Strawberries can affect risk for several different cancers in several different ways. They can even help reverse cancer growth. The research is impressive, but make sure you get the right amount and the right kind.
Strawberries are high in antioxidants, which mop up free radicals that lead to cancer. They are also high in fiber in both their flesh and seeds. Fiber can help bind up and escort out toxins that contribute to cancer. Strawberries are packed with cancer-protective vitamin C as well as a wide range of other phytonutrients, flavonoids, and polyphenols like quercetin and ellagic acid.
Ellagic acid utilizes several different cancer-fighting methods, acting as an antioxidant, helping to deactivate specific carcinogens, and slowing the reproduction of cancer cells. Ellagic acid is also a potent anti-angiogenetic factor, which can slow the growth of blood vessels that feed new tumor cells. In laboratory studies, ellagic acid has demonstrated the ability to prevent cancers of the skin, bladder, lung, esophagus, and breast.
Quercetin, found in abundance in strawberries, can induce apoptosis, the programmed self-destruction of cancer cells. In a study published in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry, quercetin and whole strawberry extract inhibited the proliferation of human liver cancer cells, produced a dramatic increase in cell death (up to 80 percent) after only 18 hours of treatment and retarded the proliferation of these cells prior to their death. Thus, strawberries and their major phytonutrient, quercetin, may have protective actions at several steps in the cancer process.
Among Chinese participants at high risk of developing esophageal cancer, eating strawberries helped prevent early lesions from developing into tumors, according to Tong Chen, MD, Ph.D., a cancer researcher at Ohio State Comprehensive Cancer Center. The 36 volunteers with precancerous changes consumed a daily freeze-dried strawberry powder drink, the equivalent of two ounces of strawberries a day. After six months, 29 of the 36 participants (80%) experienced a decreased level of precancerous lesions, most of which either regressed from moderate to mild or disappeared completely; half of those on the high dose strawberries were disease free.
It is absolutely crucial to consume only organic strawberries. A recent report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture found that a single sample of strawberries contained 13 different pesticides, and a Pesticide Action Network analysis found 54 different pesticides among strawberry samples, including nine probable carcinogens, 24 suspected hormone disruptors, 11 neurotoxins and 12 reproductive toxins.
This may be one reason that organic strawberries seem to have more cancer-fighting ability than non-organic berries. Researchers at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences compared extracts of five organic and conventional crops for their ability to inhibit the proliferation of human colon and breast cancer cells. They found that extracts from organically grown strawberries interfered with cancer cell division and inhibited cell proliferation more effectively than extracts from conventionally grown berries. At the highest concentration, the organic extracts inhibited proliferation of colon cancer cells by 60% and breast cancer cells by 53%; the corresponding values for conventional strawberry extracts were 49.7 percent and 37.9 percent respectively.
Another reason to eat organic strawberries is that their phytonutrient content is higher than in conventionally grown strawberries, especially vitamin C. Compost as a soil supplement increases the level of antioxidant compounds in strawberries. In the Swedish research mentioned above, the most effective extracts at inhibiting cell proliferation contained 48 percent more.
CAUTION
While these succulent fruits may seem like nature’s golden child, beware of strawberry allergies. More common among infants and children, these allergies can lead to swelling and tingling in the mouth, watery and itchy eyes, runny nose, asthma, and sneezing. More severe symptoms are rare, but avoid strawberries and consult with a physician if even mild allergic symptoms occur.
Avoid eating strawberries prepared as part of desserts, such as pies and sundaes. Also, avoid strawberries that have been bathed in sugary syrups. These desserts give you excessive amounts of carbs, calories and fat, but there are some desserts that good for your health, click here to find out more. Still, you can enjoy fresh, frozen, canned and dried strawberries. The variety will help broaden your diet and leave you feeling less restricted. Add strawberries to your hot or cold breakfast cereal or use them as a snack to increase the amount you eat.
As long as you don’t have an allergy to the fruit, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans encourages you to enjoy strawberries as part of the 1.5 to 2 cups of fruits you need each day.
References
[2] http://healthland.time.com/2011/04/06/can-eating-strawberries-prevent-cancer/
[3] http://www.care2.com/greenliving/strawberries-can-reverse-precancerous-progression.html
[4] http://www.webmd.com/cancer/news/20110406/strawberries-may-help-prevent-esophageal-cancer
[5] http://www.news-medical.net/news/2005/03/23/8674.aspx
[6] http://www.i-sis.org.uk/OSSCC.php
[7] http://www.prevention.com/food/healthy-eating-tips/strawberries-contain-large-amounts-chemicals-and-pesticides
[8] https://www.livestrong.com/article/32259-symptoms-strawberry-allergies/
[9] https://greatist.com/health/superfood-strawberries
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