Strawberry delight

Wimbledon might be over but researchers in Spain and Italy have given us another reason to eat strawberries – they can improve the antioxidant capacity of the blood.

A group of volunteers ate half a kilo of strawberries everyday for two weeks – researchers aimed to show the fruit could boost red blood cells’ response to oxidative stress. Researchers took blood samples from the volunteers after four, eight, 12 and 16 days, plus a month later.

Results showed regular consumption can improve the antioxidant capacity of blood plasma and also the resistance of red blood cells to oxidative haemolysis or fragmentation.

“We have shown that some varieties of strawberries make erythrocytes more resistant to oxidative stress. This could be of great significance if you take into account that this can lead to serious diseases,” said Maurizo Battino, lead author of the study, and a researcher at the Marche Polytechnic University (UNIVPM) in Italy.

The team – which includes researchers from the University of Granada (UGR) in Spain – is now analysing the variations caused by eating smaller quantities of strawberries.

“The important thing is that strawberries should form part of people’s healthy and balanced diet, as one of their five daily portions of fruit and vegetables,” Battino said.

Various strawberry varieties are being analysed in the lab, since they each contain different amounts and proportions of antioxidants, said researcher José Luis Quiles from UGR.

The body has various antioxidant mechanisms which act at different levels to repair oxidised genetic material or molecules consumed through the diet. These substances can reduce oxidative stress – an imbalance which occurs in certain pathologies like cardiovascular disease, cancer and diabetes – and psychological situations.