| In the News | | | |  | Nutrition in the News |
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| | | Having your cake and eating it tooooo…
| What are soft, delicate, fresh, juicy, indulgent, highly pleasurable, home grown and won’t last in your fridge overnight because the kids will devour the lot?
If it’s a hint you want, aside from the ever-so-well-positioned pic on this page, they’re strongly dessert-related, to things like meringue, flan, ice-cream and shortbread.
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When I was growing up in the west, they were sadly a rare, occasional summertime high – picked up on our travels by the side of the road, if we were lucky enough to get them before the greedy Leinster guzzlers!
Thankfully nowadays, with a longer Irish harvest, these mouthwatering seed-studded red berries are more accessible and affordable than ever.
And in fairness, if we have to ‘eat 5 servings each day’ of fruit and veg, who said it can’t be highly pleasurable and downright indulgent! There we are making sure the kids have a chopped banana over their breakfast cereal, an apple in their lunchbox, a smoothie with their dinner, but how many of us adults have engrained in ourselves the fruit eating habit?
Well, I for one say keep it simple, secretive but tasteful too. Have your usual piece of fruit for breakfast or a mid morning snack but then pick up the best and most delicious looking strawberries locally available, and go for it. Yes, dig in and unapologetically spoil yourself, ideally before the rest get home from school and work. And don’t make this a once off clandestine treat, but a habitual indulgence.
If you’re flinching when you think of the price of these covert extravagances, think again. Is that strawberry flavoured cheesecake (with not a trace of a strawberry within) really better value for money than your punnet of favourite berries?
| | | Let’s talk nutritional value for money. Strawberries have one of the highest antioxidant contents of any fruit. Five strawberries (or a half a serving) contain more antioxidant power than three apples or four bananas. Good for mopping up nasty free radicals that cause damage and disease in tissues.
Eating berries may boost levels of good cholesterol and improve blood pressure, indicating their potential benefits for heart health, a new Finnish study reported in February this year.
Consumption of bilberries, loganberries, black currants and strawberries led to significant reductions in blood pressure, while levels of protective HDL cholesterol rose by over five per cent, according to the results of the single-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled intervention trial published in February’s American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
Strawberries genuinely embody the concept of superfruits – foods that contain high levels of disease-fighting nutritional compounds. Eighteen of the top 20 cancer-fighting foods listed in a recent survey by the World Cancer Research Fund were fruits and vegetables, including strawberries.
| | | | Strawberries contain four interesting anti-cancer nutrients: anthocyanins, ellagic acid, isothiocyanates and quercetin. Forget about finding a multi vitamin pill with that lot, just eat the real thing.
The US Mayo Clinic is currently researching quercetin and how it might possibly help treat and prevent prostate cancer, the fastest rising cancer now affecting one in six men at some point in their life. The Mayo clinic’s Dr Xing has found quercetin blocks androgen activity which in turn helps prevent or stops the growth of prostate cancer cells.
Quercetin along with other bioflavanoids in berries also improves the health of capillaries and connective tissues which can help alleviate bruising, varicose veins and fragile capillaries.
And if you need any more convincing as to their nutritional status, strawberries may contain the most vitamin C per calories than any other fruit, depending on where they’re grown. A serving of strawberries which is 8 -10 depending on their size has as much if not more vitamin C than a large orange.
Vitamin C is not only an important antioxidant, it might also shorten colds and infections and promotes healthy, firm skin (the collagen which is the glue between skin cells, is made of vitamin C).
And if that still hasn't persuaded you, eating strawberries might even enhance your sex drive, according to a British Summer Fruits study. The reason lies in their high levels of zinc found in the fruits seeds, which unlike most fruits are eaten rather than removed.
And no, strawberries are not full of sugar and calories. A bowl of 8 – 10 has a mere 27 calories. They naturally have a low glycaemic index which means that they are slowly broken down, digested and absorbed into the blood stream and keep you feeling fuller for longer and less inclined to nibble.
As I always say your waistline is like your character- it’s much easier kept than retrieved.
Of course I will always enjoy the odd strawberry shortcake, but I tend to focus on other ways and means of enjoying these berries – anything from adding strawberries to sandwiches, regular salads, fruit salads, and my favourite – with low fat cream cheese and Ryvita! Well if we are what we eat, who wants to be fast, cheap and easy?
| | | | Click here for some Strawberry facts and figures! | | | | | |
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