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Strawberries taste so good it’s easy to forget how good they are for you. The little red berries are chalk full of vitamin C and manganese, and they’re also an excellent source of copper, potassium, biotin, phosphorus, magnesium, vitamin B6, and omega-3 fatty acids. Not bad for a fruit commonly found in desserts.
In addition to offering all-around nutrition, strawberries can also help you combat spring allergies. We’re entering allergy season: the time of year when blooming flowers and spring breezes wreak havoc on your sinuses. While bright colored flowers may boost your mood from a distance, the pollen drifting through the air leaves those with allergies suffering from headaches, sinus pressure, coughs, runny noses, and host of other symptoms.
Fortunately, strawberries contain a powerful nutrient to combat allergies. Fisetin is an important flavonoid that also acts as an anti-allergy fighter. Fisetin along with other flavonoids help make sure your body’s immune system is functioning properly and responding to toxins and allergens properly.
Fisetin helps protect your body’s T-cells, also known as Tregs. These Tregs keep your body’s immune system in tip top shape, and they limit the body’s inflammatory response. Without adequate Treg function, the body’s immune system is greatly compromised, and its immune response can cause more harm than good. Fisetin can help make sure that your body responds as efficiently as possible to allergens and toxins, fighting them off without causing too much inflammation.
If you plan to pick up some strawberries to help with your allergies, consider buying organic. This year, strawberries topped the Environmental Working Group’s Dirty Dozen. That means that conventionally grown strawberries are exposed to more pesticides than any other fruit or vegetable. Yikes. They’re definitely worth buying organic. Additionally, organic strawberries have been shown to have higher levels of vitamin C and antioxidants than their conventionally grown counterparts.
