Cholesterol may be Lowered by Strawberries

A new study has suggested strawberries lower cholesterol. According to the analyses conducted by Italian and Spanish scientists, volunteers who ate half a kilo of strawberries a day for a month had lower levels of bad cholesterol and triglycerides.
Previous studies demonstrated that strawberries have significant antioxidant capacity. Strawberries are considered an important fruit in the Mediterranean diet due to their high content of essential nutrients and beneficial phytochemicals, which seem to exert positive effects on human health.
In this study healthy volunteers were supplemented daily with 500 g of strawberries for a month. Strawberry consumption was observed to positively influence the lipid profile by significantly lowering total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and triglycerides levels compared with baseline period. The high-density lipoprotein, or what is known as HDL or good cholesterol, remained unchanged.
Maurizio Battino, researcher at UNIVPM and Director of the study, has said that this is the first study which has been published that supports the protective role of the bioactive compounds in strawberries in fighting recognized markers and risk factors which are associated with cardiovascular diseases.