“Keep calm and eat a strawberry.”
— Anonymous
🍓 Do you love strawberries? 🍓
I do and it’s strawberry season where I live. When my kids were little, every year we would go strawberry picking. There’s a field about an hour from where we live. It was a lot of fun.
Did you know that these juicy heart-shaped berries are healthy carbs you can eat plus they have benefits other than their sweet taste?
Now if you remember a few weeks ago, we talked about how we do need carbohydrates – but not the simple carbs you may think about first when I say the word carb. Not the cakes, cookies, bread, or pastas. Those are simple carbs – they are simple or easy to eat, and they are simple to digest. That’s one way to remember them. They have very few nutrients — little to no fiber, vitamins, and minerals. So you get hungry again quickly and want to eat more often. And unfortunately, the simple carbs have a lot of sugar and other ingredients that make you crave them more. Plus, they cause weight gain, increased fatigue and brain fog, insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, obesity, and heart disease. And because they increase inflammation in your body, they can contribute to the development of autoimmune disorders and chronic illness down the road.
Now I am not saying you have to go the rest of your life without eating cake or cookies or bread. No – that’d be unrealistic. But if you are looking for ways to improve your health — how you feel physically, mentally, emotionally, and even spiritually, then eating complex carbs more often than simple carbs is a better choice.
Remember, complex carbs have more vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and fiber. So you stay fuller longer, don’t crave the junk foods as much, and actually do feel better – increased energy and clearer thinking, less bloating and tummy issues, more stable moods, and fit into your clothes better. But if you’ve been eating primarily simple carbs like breads, cakes, cookies, and pastas, be gentle on yourself and slowly introduce the complex carbs. It’s a marathon, not a sprint, right?
Back to strawberries which most people love. They’re one of those complex carbs that even the pickiest eaters (children or adults) enjoy. Now some people may have a strawberry allergy or sensitivity so be aware. If you or a loved one eats strawberries and gets a rash around their mouth or face soon afterwards, it could indicate an allergy to strawberries. One of my children had that when younger.
What Benefits Do Strawberries Provide?
*Vitamins C and K – In fact, just eight strawberries have more vitamin C than an orange!
*Manganese – helps form connective tissue and bones and promotes blood clotting.
*Magnesium – muscle and nerve function and energy. In fact, magnesium can help reduce inflammation which may lead to chronic health issues like heart disease, diabetes, osteoporosis, and autoimmune issues like Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis.
*Folate – This B vitamin helps with bone marrow and turns carbs into energy; you may have heard about folate when you were pregnant because folate is crucial during early pregnancy to reduce the risk of birth defects in the brain and spine.
*Fiber – so you’ll stay fuller longer and helps prevent constipation.
*Antioxidants like quercetin which helps with inflammation and immunity.
*Potassium – keeps heart rate steady and helps with blood pressure; potassium also works with calcium in helping prevent osteoporosis.
Some scientists and doctors note that strawberries may help boost energy, brain function, and immunity, relieve arthritis and gout, help decrease inflammation, protect against heart disease, and satisfy those sweet cravings so you don’t reach for candy or cookies. Strawberries are low in calories and sugar. One cup of whole strawberries has only 46 calories and 7 grams of sugar! Win-Win for tasty complex carbs! See how carbs can be part of a healthy diet. Like we talked about a couple weeks ago, you just have to choose the right carbs!
What Are Ways to Eat Strawberries?
I know you’ve eaten strawberries raw, but have you ever tried them cooked? You can even eat their leaves raw or cooked! Try some this week on top of a salad or in coconut yogurt, in a smoothie (click here for the recipe), on top of chia seed pudding (click here for that recipe), or in a cobbler (gluten-free, of course). Or brew a tea with their leaves.
And one other important note about strawberries — they are one of the Dirty Dozen. These are the twelve fruits and vegetables that have more pesticides than other produce. So you should eat these grown organic rather than conventionally. In fact, strawberries are on the top of the list. Why? Because conventional farmers use pesticides on the berries and you’re eating the berry – the flesh, the part of the plant that is exposed to the pesticides, right? It’s different than eating an avocado – you eat the inside of it. Plus, avocados are on the Clean Fifteen – produce which have the least amount of pesticides. You can check out ewg.org for a chart that shows both lists of foods.
👉 And if you’re looking for some other ideas for tasty and colorful carbs you can eat to help reduce the inflammation, fatigue, brain fog, and weight issues even if you are over 40, click here to sign up for a free gift. This freebie will give you a variety of ideas of colorful carbs that you can incorporate into your daily diet for health. Plus, your whole family can enjoy them!
Leah Cheshire, MCD, CCC-SLP, NBC-HWC is a National Board Certified Health and Wellness coach and a speech-language pathologist who works primarily with women who want more energy and better moods, less pain and stress, and management of weight as well as autoimmune, hormonal, and digestive issues. She’s also an autoimmune warrior herself and uses nutritional and lifestyle modifications for both herself and clients. Click here to contact her for a free discovery call.
