Nutrition

Sensational Strawberries

WORDS RACHEL HART

A vibrantly red, heart-shaped morsel bursting with juicy sweetness—is it any surprise strawberries are among the world’s most popular fruit? Synonymous with spring and essential on top of a Christmas pav, strawberries are our reward for suffering through a long, cold winter.

Luckily, nature’s prettiest lolly is as healthy as it is delicious. Great for digestive health, strawberries are a low-calorie fruit made up largely of water and fibre, which is found mostly in the hundreds of tiny seeds surrounding the skin. Like many fruits, they contain natural sugars and offer a decent dose of calcium, manganese, potassium and folate. But it’s their vitamin C content where strawberries really punch above their weight, with just one cup of strawberries providing your entire daily quota. One cup roughly equates to seven or eight strawberries, so you can see how easy it is to meet your vitamin C needs during strawberry season! There are many fruits that diabetics have to miss out on, from grapes to bananas to watermelon. Thankfully, strawberries aren’t one of them. In fact, strawberries aren’t just safe for people with diabetes, they’re recommended. As a low GI food, strawberries slow down glucose digestion reducing spikes in both glucose and insulin, making them useful for diabetes prevention and management. The vibrant colours of fruits and vegetables come from plant compounds like polyphenols, and bright red strawberries have up to ten times more of these health-promoting properties than the average fruit. These plant compounds are responsible for boosting your immune system and protecting your body from the oxidation that can lead to inflammation, cancer and heart disease. They even help keep wrinkles at bay. Unfortunately, there are an unlucky few among us who have an allergic response to strawberries, more often children and those also sensitive to pollen and apples. But if you experience tingling, hives or swelling, all is not lost: you’re likely reacting to the red pigments – the anthocyanins – so speaking to your local greengrocer about sourcing some white alpine variety strawberries might just do the trick. Strawberries grow so well in the Bay of Plenty, and even better in the Waikato, that a strawberry patch in the backyard is just as common as a crop of carrots or a tomato vine. The first strawberries will start to ripen as early as September, and they can be found on the shelves as late as March. Strawberry picking in summer is a popular activity in our two regions too, with plenty of growers opening up their gates to let you into their pick-your-own orchards for bucketloads of fresh fruit paired with a delicious cone of fresh berry ice cream. At peak ripeness, strawberries are very versatile. A popular choice for fruit salads and dessert toppings, smoothies and preserves, they can also find their way into savoury dishes in the form of strawberry salsa, or strawberry, spinach and avocado salad. Of course, that’s assuming they stick around on your bench long enough—it’s pretty hard to go past a fresh strawberry!

Rachel Hart

Hailing from Canada, Rachel has fallen in love with life in the beautiful Bay of Plenty where she is a freelance writer with a passion for healthy food. She splits her time between telling people’s stories, creating web content and experimenting in the kitchen.