The strawberries are a spring delicious fruit, so juicy and scented they are a joy for adults and children, can be added to sweets, make the breakfasts yummy and are the perfect ingredient for fruit salads. But strawberries are also a source of antioxidants and beneficial substances for the health so much that science has focused its attention to these fruits already for several years now in order to understand the effects on the humans. Well, according to scientific researches, such as the work presented a few months ago at the 256° meeting of the American Chemical Society by a team of the Massachussetts University (Hand Xiao et al) or the research published a few years ago by a group of Californian scientists on the journal PLoS One (Maher et al, 2011), strawberries protect the gut, soothe inflammations but have also a protective role on kidneys and brain even in case of illnesses such as type 1 and 2 diabetes.
In particular, the scientists have observed that a portion of less than 3/4 cup of strawberries per day has been able to reduce the inflammation in the gut tissues by reducing symptoms such as weight loss and diarrhea, even in case of chronic inflammation diseases of the bowel. These types of illnesses, such as Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis, are growing among the population because of the lifestyle and the diet rich in sugars and animal fats and low in fibers. Moreover, this inflammation unbalances the bacteria in the gut by increasing the number of bad bacteria. Strawberries, on the contrary, have proven to be able to restore the balance of the microbiota, namely all the bacteria that live in the gut, by increasing the amount of good bacteria such as Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium. Finally, in another research, the scientists have observed that strawberries play a protective role on the kidneys and brain and act as anticancer agents by counteracting the complications of illnesses such as type 1 and type 2 diabetes. This effect is due to fisetin, a powerful antioxidant compound contained in strawberries that reduces substances, called advanced glycation end-products, that, when present at high levels, may cause inflammations and oxidative stress.
For this reason, sometimes it takes just a little effort, a change in diet and lifestyle, to get more health. However, strawberries may cause allergies, for this reason, if you are allergic to this fruit, don’t include it in your diet. Prefer always strawberries from organic origin.
