Strawberries are synonymous with summer, not just in Britain but in countries around the world. Now that Wimbledon Tennis is over, and strawberries are on offer again, it's a great time to take advantage of delicious homegrown strawberries and I thought over the next couple of weeks, I would write a series of posts dedicated to strawberries. In addition to some information about the nutritional properties of strawberries, I'll also be sharing with you some of my favourite summer strawberry recipes.
Aside from being fragrantly sweet and juicy when ripe and packed with high levels of antioxidants and anti-inflammatory phytonutrients. Cancer is often the cause of chronic excessive oxidative stress and inflammation so given the high levels of antioxidants and phytonutrients in strawberries, it’s unsurprising that they are cancer preventative too.
Most of the studies demonstrate that strawberries are cancer preventative in breast, colon, cervical and oesophageal cancer. The tumour inhibiting nature of strawberries lies in their high levels of phytonutrients , particularly ellagic acid and ellagitannins . These compounds boost the antioxidant activity of enzymes, which are key in cancer prevention by detoxifying free radicals, modulation of gene expression in cell proliferation, survival and metabolism and protect and repair DNA damage. Finally, strawberries are also an excellent source of vitamin C and manganese which are important for antioxidant actions.
References
Giampieri et al - Strawberry as a health promoter: an evidence based review. - Food Funct. 2015 May;6(5):1386- 98
Meyers KJ, Watkins CB, Pritts MP, Liu RH. Antioxidant and antiproliferative
activities of strawberries. J Agric Food Chem. 2003 Nov 5;51(23):6887-92. 2003
Reber JD, Eggett DL and Parker TL. Antioxidant capacity interactions and a
chemical/structural model of phenolic compounds found in strawberries.
Int J Food Sci Nutr. 2011 Mar 8. [Epub ahead of print]. 2011.
Wedge et al. Anticarcinogenic Activity of Strawberry, Blueberry, and Raspbe
rry Extracts to Breast and Cervical Cancer Cells. Journal of Medicinal Food, 2004; 4(1):49-51. 2004.
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