Tiny, red, jewels of the sun. Strawberries are wonderful, gratifying fruits that are grown all over the world. Amongst the most famous of these are Fragoline di Bosco’s; grown in the south of Italy and featuring famously in Mary Contini’s Dear Francesca, they are cultivated with an intense sweetness - should you be fortunate enough to come across one of these, be sure to ‘sprinkle them with lemon juice and sugar’ writes Ms Contini, an Italian cookery author, whose family runs the famous delicatessen, Valvona and Crolla, in Edinburgh.

The lemon juice will enhance and draw out the strawberry flavour. This culinary tip can be used to bring out the flavours from ‘regular’ supermarket strawberries too. Others claim adding freshly ground black pepper also works a treat!

Strawberries are rich in fibre, which we all need healthy amounts of to ‘smooth’ our digestion. They offer good amounts of vitamin C, more than any other berry, except for blackcurrants, along with beta-carotene, folic acid and potassium, which helps maintain a healthy blood pressure and reduce your risk of developing heart disease later in life.

Strawberries are also rich in other antioxidant flavonoids, such as anthocyanins; Research has shown these natural plant chemicals in strawberries can inhibit the growth of cancer cells.

"The modern strawberry is just one of hundreds of varieties cultivated worldwide. There are also about twenty wild species. They all have different properties - visible in the size, shape and colour of the fruit, or the size and abundance of flowers...", says Professor Richard Mithen, Head of Plant Foods for Health Protection at the Institute of Food Research based in Norwich.

I was also surprised to discover that the strawberry is technically a false fruit because it grows from the base rather than the ovary of a flower and, therefore, is not a true berry.

Not everyone gets on well with strawberries: they can irritate eczema and other skin conditions such as psoriasis, and with kids you may find the tiny seeds on the outside of the berry upset immature digestive systems. So watch out that your little one’s gut doesn’t become unstable.

Be warned however. What you put on strawberries can influence how healthy your mid-afternoon snack turns out to be. Cream and Sugar is delicious and traditional, but it tots up the calories and saturated fat levels; single cream is the lower-fat option.

It’s also easy to find yoghurt alternatives, which are lower in fat and can give a less cloying taste. Whole-milk natural yoghurt usually contains 3 per cent fat; Greek yoghurt is between 6 per cent and 10 per cent, although you can get some low-fat ones. Low-fat natural yoghurt, which I find it too insipid, can be just 1 per cent fat, with full-fat fromage frais being the highest at 8 per cent. You can also buy yoghurt that’s 0 per cent fat, although this is a waste of a mouthful for me.

Without doubt, however, the greatest way to eat strawberries is as follows;
"Grab a small punnet of fresh strawberries, 8 lemon biscuits (Marks and Spencer’s works well) and Greek Yoghurt. Wash the berries and remove the stalks, slice in half or quarters and place in a bowl. In the middle of each Lemon biscuit place a thick dollop of Greek yoghurt; spread it to the edge and place the sliced strawberries on top. Garnish with a few mint leaves if you have them to hand, and eat straight away," writes the Times nutritionist Jane Clarke.

And if the tennis is on, and the sun is shining...Delicious.





Mary Hughes
ChristianToday Medical Correspondent