Lifestyle | Food of the month: Strawberries

Deirdre, our Health and Wellness officer, educates the GetSmarter team about the chosen food of the month.

Nothing tastes better in summer than freshly-picked strawberries eaten just as is. However, when biting into this delicious fruit you probably don’t realize that it has quite and rich and colourful history.

The History

Some of the earliest accounts of strawberries came from ancient Rome from around 200 BC. The first sketch of a strawberry plant was printed in 1484. Early publications spoke of medicinal uses for strawberries, not as edible fruit.
 
In the 12th Century Saint Hildegard von Binger pronounced strawberries unfit to eat because they may have been contaminated by snakes and toads due to the fact that they were grown so close to the ground.

In the mid 18th century, Charles Linnaeus, a Swedish botanist, put this superstition to rest by switching to a diet consisting only of strawberries to prove them edible. We owe Dr. Linnaeus quite a bit, because were it not for his experiment, we might never have discovered the joy of eating strawberries.



Apart from their delicious taste, strawberries also have various health benefits. The anthocyanins in strawberries not only provide its flush red color, they also serve as potent antioxidants that have repeatedly been shown to help protect cell structures in the body and to prevent oxygen damage in all of the body's organ systems.

Strawberries' unique phenol content makes them a heart-protective fruit, an anti-cancer fruit, and an anti-inflammatory fruit, all rolled into one. Now if that isn’t enough reason to indulge in decadent strawberries, nothing is.

Here follows a delicious strawberry recipe for you to enjoy this summer:



Strawberry Salad with Olives and Balsamic Vinegar

Ingredients

    •    1kg large strawberries
    •    10 black olives
    •    10 leaves fresh and fragrant basil, or mint if you have none
    •    1 tsp red wine vinegar
    •    2 tsp balsamic vinegar
    •    1 tsp coarsely milled white pepper
    •    ½ tsp sea salt
    •    ½ tsp caster sugar
    •    2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil


Rinse and slice the strawberries and arrange them in overlapping slices on a plate. Moisten with the two vinegars, season with the pepper, sugar and salt, sprinkle with olives and torn basil leaves and anoint all with the olive oil. Serve as a starter with crusty bread.

This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution license.