Here's Why Your Brain and Body Will Love Strawberries

Perhaps you will want to consider adding a serving of strawberries to your daily food intact.

Here’s why: Not only do they taste great, but new research suggests the regular addition of strawberries to your diet every day will provide a whole range of health benefits.

Benefits of Strawberries

Studies have suggested they can help ward off dementia, the onset of Alzheimer’s disease, lower blood pressure and the risk of heart disease, improve gut health, and even help slow the spread of breast cancer.

In addition to the latest findings, researchers say that strawberries provide all our daily vitamin C needs. They also contain nutrients that are heart-healthy, such as potassium, folate, fiber, polyphenols, and phytosterols.

These surprising benefits of strawberries emerge from recent scientific studies. Among the newest studies have been one in San Diego, another that took place at RUSH University, and a third that was conducted by European and Latin American researchers.

One Serving

A serving amounts to about a cup of strawberries, or eight large strawberries, a day. They can be eaten in two sessions of about four large strawberries each—say, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.

A serving is also often referred to as about 500 grams of the berries. Much depends, of course, on the size of the berries themselves. You will need fewer extra-large berries to make up the daily amount and more smaller berries to do so.

A Closer Look at the Studies

Let’s take a look at what researchers have found in the newest studies and consider how the findings might benefit us.

Helps Our Hearts and Our Brains

The study conducted at San Diego State University builds on earlier research that found that strawberries indeed have a wide range of benefits that help our hearts, our bodily systems, and our brains.

After 35 test subjects ate the strawberries for the eight weeks, the researchers conducted tests on those who had taken part.

They found:

• Brain processing speed was 5.2% faster

• Systolic blood pressure (that is the one on the top) fell by 3.6%

• Total antioxidant capacity grew by a surprising 10.2%

• Waist circumference measurements of the participants were 1.1% lower.

Might Fend Off Alzheimer’s

A compound found in strawberries called pelargonidin might reduce the number of tau tangles in the brain, according to findings at RUSH University in Chicago. Tau tangles are a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease. The disease is caused by unusual changes with tau proteins that increase in the brain so any way they can be reduced helps ward off the disease.

Strawberries contain more pelargonidin than other berries.

For their study, RUSH researchers examined data gathered in a long-term study that began in 1997 and involved 575 people who lived in 40 retirement homes and senior public housing units in northern Illinois. Their diets were assessed by questionnaires for up to almost 20 years of follow-up.

Those involved underwent regular testing for brain functions. Their diets were followed and the results were adjusted for other factors that could affect memory and thinking skills.

The researchers say the results were the same after they had adjusted for genetic factors as well as for vitamin E and vitamin C.

The study was based on observations and does not prove a direct relationship between strawberries and the prevention of Alzheimer’s, Agarwal says. Further research is needed to understand the role that nutrition plays in Alzheimer’s disease, he adds.

This study, however, provides hope on how specific dietary components such as strawberries might help brain health, he explains.

Potential Treatment for Breast Cancer

A study held in Italy and Spain found that strawberries might potentially be able to treat or even prevent breast cancer.

In the study, a strawberry extract was shown to stop the spread of breast cancer cells in mice.

For the first time, scientists have shown that a strawberry extract, rich in phenolic compounds, holds back the spread of breast cancer cells, says Maurizio Battino, co-author of the paper written on the study and a leading researcher at the Marche Polytechnic University in Italy.

Researchers at the European University of The Atlantic in Santander, Spain, also took part in the research.

The stop in the spread of the cancer cells was shown in the in vitro (test-tube) model as well as in the in vivo (in a living organism) model, Battino says.

The test-tube model used a concentration of the Alba variety of strawberries on highly aggressive tumor cells for periods of 24, 48 and 72 hours. The test showed that the strawberry extract worked effectively to stop the spread of the tumor cells.

The in vivo model used female mice raised in a laboratory. They were divided into two groups. One group was fed a standard mouse diet whereas the other group was fed a diet enriched with strawberry extract. A month later all the mice were injected with cancer cells.

The tumors were removed five weeks later to evaluate their weight and volume.

The strawberry extract had stopped the growth and spread of the cancer cells to the healthy tissue alongside, the research team found.

In addition, the weight and volume of the tumors themselves were significantly reduced, Battino says.

The researchers added, however, that the results of the study using mice could not necessarily be extended to humans.

The results are valid in order to understand the potential effects of strawberries on breast cancer, but they need to be followed by further studies to determine whether humans would experience the same positive effects as those found in mice, Battino adds.