By Staff Writer - March, 3rd 2014

According to the Heart and Stroke Foundation,heart disease is one of the leading causes of death among Canadian women. Luckily, strawberries also contain powerful heart-health boosters. “Ellagic acid and flavonoids— or phytochemicals—can provide an antioxidant effect that can benefit heart health in various ways,” explains Edwards. “One way includes counteracting the effect of low-density lipoprotein, or LDL—bad cholesterol in the blood—which causes plaque to build up in arteries. A second way is that they provide an anti-inflammatory effect, which is also good for the heart.” Researchers at the Clinical Nutrition and Risk Factor Modification Center in Toronto studied the effect of strawberries on a cholesterol-lowering diet and concluded that adding strawberries to the diet reduced oxidative damage, as well as blood lipids—both of which play a role in heart disease and diabetes.

Natural Health News — Regular consumption of strawberries could help to significantly lower levels of bad cholesterol and triglycerides, and have other positive health effects besides, according to new research.

Several studies have already demonstrated the antioxidant capacity of strawberries, but a new experiment conducted by Italian and Spanish researchers has shown that these popular fruits also help to reduce cholesterol.

The team set up an month-long experiment in which they added 500 g of strawberries to the daily diets of 23 healthy volunteers. They took blood samples at the beginning and the end of 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 (unhealthy fats in the blood) fell by 8.78%, 13.72% and 20.8% respectively. Levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL or ‘good’ cholesterol) …

 

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