Eating strawberries can significantly lower levels of bad cholesterol and triglycerides, according to a study conducted by Italian and Spanish scientists.
Researchers from the Università Politecnica delle Marche (UNIVPM, Italy), together with colleagues from the Universities of Salamanca, Granada and Seville (Spain), added about a pound of strawberries to the daily diets of 23 healthy volunteers over a month. They took blood samples before and after this period to compare data.
The results, which are published in the Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry, show that the total amount of cholesterol, the levels of low-density lipoproteins (LDL or bad cholesterol) and the quantity of triglycerides fell to 8.78 percent, 13.72 percent and 20.8 percent respectively. The high-density lipoprotein (HDL or good cholesterol) remained unchanged.
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Eating strawberries also improved other parameters such as the general plasma lipid profile, antioxidant biomarkers (such as vitamin C or oxygen radical absorbance capacity), antihemolytic defenses and platelet function. All parameters returned to their initial values 15 days after abandoning 'treatment' with strawberries.
Although earlier studies have shown that strawberries are powerful antioxidants researcher Maurizio Battino of UNIVPM said this was the first study to discover that strawberries tackle risk factors for cardiovascular diseases.
Even though the researchers admit they don't know exactly which compounds provide the beneficial effects, they believe anthocyanins, the vegetable pigments that are responsible for their red color, are responsible.
In other studies, the research team found that eating strawberries also protects against ultraviolet radiation, reduces the damage that alcohol can have on the gastric mucosa, strengthens erythrocytes, or red blood cells, and improves the antioxidant capacity of the blood.
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