Strawberries: A Sweet, Vitamin-Rich Health Support

For those of you who may not know, the American Botanical Council offers free HerbClips on their website. Today they're featuring an HerbClip about rose hip bread and rose petal jelly, but last week the Clip was about strawberries and too sweet to pass up!

"The taste of a warm, juicy strawberry on a hot summer day is a delight to the mouth," wrote Lori Glenn, Managing Editor. "Even in February when southern California strawberries appear at the northern California farmer's markets, the sight of the red fruit is a joy they promise that better weather and a variety of berries will soon appear."

A signal of spring and summer to come, strawberries are not only sweet, their nutrient-rich too, as Glenn goes on to explain:

"Strawberries are a rich source of flavonoids, iron, folate, potassium, vitamins B, C and E, and phenols. In the strawberry, these phenols are led by anthocyanins and ellagitannins. The anthocyanins not only provide the strawberry's red color, but they also supply antioxidants. Strawberries' unique phenol content gives them heart-protective, anti-cancer, and anti-inflammatory abilities. Strawberries also have blood-purifying, astringent, diuretic, and liver-tonic properties. Medicinally, the fruit has been used to treat anemia, constipation, fevers, hangover, high blood pressure, gout, and rheumatism. Cut strawberries have even been used to whiten teeth and are said not to damage the enamel. In a recent study (see HC 110195-396), freeze-dried strawberries were found to lower cardiovascular disease risk factors in women with metabolic syndrome."

Eat up! Glenn suggests adding strawberries to a green salad with the addition of some chopped nuts and cheese drizzled with lemon and olive oil. How do you like your strawberries? If you have favorite, healthy strawberry recipes to share, please post them here!!

Also, yesterday's edition of The Oregonian included the article "Growing strawberries is deliciously easy here." According to the article, Oregon's climate is perfect for strawberries, but even if you don't live near ACHS in Oregon, there may be some use useful tips about planting, care, and harvest as well.

>> If you're interested in learning more about holistic nutrition, check out our new Nut 101 Introduction to Nutrition course here: http://www.achs.edu/course-desc.aspx?pid=196&id=4

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