Beautiful, yummy and fragrant, this is the period of strawberries, so juicy that everybody loves them! But strawberries are also excellent sources of vitamins, such as ascorbic and folic acid, mineral salts, but, above all, antioxidant substances such as quercetin, anthocyanins, ellagic acid, catechins. Strawberries are therefore powerful anti-aging and, as evidenced by a very recent study published a few days ago in the Journal of Food Biochemistry by a South African team (Erukainure et al, Jun 2020), they also protect heart health.
Scientists induced oxidative stress on cardiac tissue in an experiment performed in the laboratory. This damage caused by free radicals was measured objectively by observing the decrease in the main circulating antioxidant substances, such as glutathione and the superoxide dismutase enzyme, and, simultaneously, the increase in the markers of oxidative stress. The second part of the experiment consisted of putting this heart tissue in contact with strawberry extracts and what scientists observed was that the fruit was able to reverse the trend by reducing the damage caused by free radicals.
As suggested by the authors of the study, including strawberries in the daily diet is a tasty, affordable and cheap way to protect heart health.
