Phytochemicals & Antioxidants in Strawberry Juice
Nutritionist Ronald Prior, who devised the now well-known ORAC (Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity), which measures the antioxidant activity in foods, recommends we eat at least 3,500 ORAC units a day to protect from oxidative stress, which contributes to aging. Since strawberries are the fourth highest-rated fruit in ORAC, you can get your 3,500 units in just one and a half cups.
The neuroscientist Jim Joseph was so impressed with these little red berries’ antioxidative power that he decided to research how effective they would be in protecting against the damaging effects of free radical activity in the brain. Since the brain burns glucose for fuel, one of the unwanted byproducts is free radicals, an untold number of them over the course of your lifetime. As we get older, we become more sensitive to their destructive effects. Jim, with the help of Paula Bickfors of the University of Colorado, tested two groups of rats; both were put under extreme oxidative stress by placing them in 100 percent oxygen chambers for 48 hours. This would mimic the effects of aging on the brain. When the first group was removed and studied, brain activity decreased substantially, equaling aging of between 6 to 18 months. In human years it would be equivalent of going from 18 to 60 years almost overnight. The second group of rats were fed a strawberry-fortified diet for two months prior to the experiment. Incredibly, the second group of rats came out of the oxygen chamber with no change in brain activity. Zero change!
And if that’s not enough, strawberries also contain phenolic acids, one of which is called ellagic acid. This little dynamo has been shown to prevent esophageal and colon tumors in animals. Ellagic acid also encourages cell death in cancer cells. Says Dr. Daniel Nixon, medical oncologist and president of the American Health Foundation in Valhalla New York, “it makes cancer cells learn how to die like normal cells.” Strawberries are also handy if you have to endure second-hand smoke. The ellagic acid neutralizes and dissolves the carcinogen PAH, which is present in cigarette smoke.