Improves cognitive function and lowers blood pressure with nature’s super fruit

In general, berries are considered a superfood. All berries, including acai, blue, black and raspberry, provide numerous health benefits.

Presented at NUTRITION 2023San Diego State University research shows that strawberry consumption improves cognitive function, reduces blood pressure and increases antioxidant capacity (1). The results of this study add to previous evidence for the cognitive and cardiovascular benefits of strawberries.

Shirin Hooshmand, a professor at San Diego State University and lead researcher on the study, said the idea for this study came from previous research (2). “Before we did our clinical study, some of the similar effects were shown in animal studies and some human studies, but (in) different populations and using different study designs,” she noted.

Long-term observational studies, such as Nurses’ health survey and Health professional examinationfound that strawberry consumers had a lower rate of cognitive decline (3). An analysis of 35 healthy men and women between the ages of 66 and 78 was conducted by Dr. Hooshmand and her team.

Each day for eight weeks, study participants consumed 26 grams of freeze-dried strawberry powder, equivalent to two servings of fresh strawberries or a control powder. At the end of eight weeks, the study found that those who ate the strawberries improved their cognitive processing speed by 5.2 percent, lowered their systolic blood pressure by 3.6 percent, and increased their antioxidant capacity by 10.2 percent.

Given that strawberries are a good source of vitamin C, Dr. Hooshmand that they expected to see an improvement in antioxidant capacity. They also expected cognitive processing speed to improve based on their hypothesis

According to the study, incorporating strawberries into your diet can improve cognitive function and reduce the risk of cardiovascular problems, including high blood pressure. This simple dietary change of adding strawberries to your daily meals can improve these results, especially in older adults.

(1) https://nutrition2023.eventscribe.net/fsPopup.asp?PosterID=578748&Query=hooshmand&mode=posterInfo
(2) https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2023/07/26/2711361/0/en/Strawberry-Consumption-May-Improve-Cognitive-Function-in-Older-Adults-New-Study-Says. html
(3) https://www.sci.news/medicine/strawberry-cognitive-function-cardiovascular-health-older-adults-12133.html