Are Strawberries the New Superfood?
“You are what you eat,” as they say. This saying holds more merit than most others. After all, what we eat in our day-to-day life has a tremendous impact on our health. While healthy eating habits are at the heart of keeping our bodies running like well-oiled machines, even one low-quality or highly processed meal can ruin our day.
Where are we going with this? “Knowledge is power,” another classic proverb. Knowing what you’re putting in your body is half the battle. Luckily, we have scientists constantly working to better understand how we react to different food.
Today, let’s explore strawberries and what Oklahoma State University’s Department of Nutritional Sciences discovered about them.
What Makes a Strawberry?
Strawberries are great. Being filled with fiber and antioxidants, they serve as a great fat, sodium, and cholesterol-free snack. But today, we’ll be focusing on two very specific aspects: phytochemicals and vitamins.
Phytochemicals are bioactive nutrient plan chemicals. Yeah, that’s kind of a mouthful. This natural compound packs a bunch of health benefits while also reducing the risk of certain chronic diseases.
Vitamins are organic compounds that help run certain processes in our body. Here, we’ll focus on ascorbic acid (vitamin C) and folic acid (B9). The first helps protect cells from free radicals, acting as an antioxidant, while the second helps make new red blood cells distribute oxygen through your body.
That’s pretty powerful stuff… Turns out there’s more to it.
What Else We Learned
Oklahoma State University found that strawberries offer some pretty big preventive and therapeutic benefits.
Compounds in strawberries reduce postprandial oxidative stress by strengthening antioxidant defenses. This phenomenon is known to cause multiple degenerative diseases. In layman’s terms, strawberries help put an extra step between you and diabetes, cystic fibrosis, cataracts, and some other infections.
On top of that, regularly eating strawberries helps reduce blood pressure and fat levels in the blood. They also encourage the creation of endothelial cells that protect the heart and blood vessels.
Wrapping Up
If you’re still looking for a healthy snack to add to your daily diet, strawberries should definitely be a top contender. The many benefits we covered today, paired with their nutritional value, make it a great guilt-free treat for you to enjoy.
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