Italian food and way of eating: healthy strawberries 2
A few days ago, I attended a very interesting dinner my Harvard Alumni Club organized in Milan. Umberto Veronesi was our dinner guest. He is the founder of the Veronesi Foundation, which carries on very important scientific research in order to fight cancer.
At the dinner he spoke about the scientific advances in genetics and their impact on hereditary diseases and predictive medicine. He told us that doctors and scientists strongly believe certain foods can be very powerful in order to prevent cancer. Still, there is not enough evidence; however, they are doing lots of research to demonstrate the importance of food.
Among the many food products he talked about, he said strawberries may be very powerful against cancer.
We already know about the many health benefits strawberries have. They are rich in phenols (anthocyanins) which make up the red colour and serve as potent antioxidants. Also a research from Harvard Medical School showed that strawberries may offer heart disease protection.
In addition to that, strawberries are an important source of ellagic acid. Veronesi’s team are studying the ellagic acid’s possible benefits against cancer.
After listening to this speech, I and Marika have been eating strawberries every day, in many different ways: at breakfast with cereals, at lunch and dinner with salad.
Pietro, the farmer from whom we buy all the ingredients for our cooking classes, grows organic and super tasty strawberries.
We like making a salad with a few drops of red wine or the very old balsamic vinegar. This is to enhance the phenols (anthocyanins) benefits. Then we decorate with a few mint leaves or basil.
Good healthy strawberries!
