beauty, health and home cooking recipes

Dur­ing the straw­ber­ry sea­son, a per­son is rec­om­mend­ed to eat at least three kilo­grams of good­ies. It has a ben­e­fi­cial effect on the func­tion­ing of the car­dio­vas­cu­lar sys­tem, strength­ens the immune sys­tem, nor­mal­izes intesti­nal motil­i­ty, helps with ane­mia, calms and helps to cope with insom­nia. Espe­cial­ly for you, we have col­lect­ed the most impor­tant facts about all the prop­er­ties and uses of straw­ber­ries.

TOP 5 little-known facts about strawberries

1. Relieves pain

Many believe that the ben­e­fits of a healthy diet show up over time. How­ev­er, sci­en­tists from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Cal­i­for­nia at Los Ange­les have refut­ed this opin­ion. Experts have found that straw­ber­ries are not only good for health, but also have a num­ber of advan­tages com­pared to oth­er berries.

The heal­ing prop­er­ties of antiox­i­dants con­tained in the berry appear in record time.

Straw­ber­ries quick­ly cleanse the blood, per­fect­ly strength­en the immune sys­tem and nor­mal­ize metab­o­lism. It has ele­ments that help fight the dis­rup­tion of the car­dio­vas­cu­lar sys­tem, dis­eases of the joints, kid­neys, liv­er, and even can­cer.

It has been noticed that eat­ing berries can relieve headaches, toothaches, and also help to recov­er faster after a cold.

2.Pairs well with products

Most often, straw­ber­ries are con­sumed with dairy prod­ucts. Inter­est­ing­ly, this berry goes well with poul­try, cheese and seafood. Accord­ing to gourmets, the most deli­cious will be straw­ber­ries fried in but­ter, to which black pep­per is added. But most often, experts rec­om­mend eat­ing straw­ber­ries as a dessert.

Since straw­ber­ries can cause fer­men­ta­tion in the stom­ach, this berry is best con­sumed sep­a­rate­ly from oth­er dish­es..

3. Enriched with beneficial iron

Straw­ber­ries con­tain cop­per, which helps pro­duce col­la­gen, a sub­stance that is good for the skin. Straw­ber­ry masks have a reju­ve­nat­ing effect, and the juice of this berry helps to remove age spots.

Doc­tors rec­om­mend mak­ing berry masks for all skin from time to time. This will not only pro­long its elas­tic­i­ty, but also give a healthy col­or.

4. Strawberries are the hormone of happiness

Sur­pris­ing­ly, sweet straw­ber­ries are able to low­er blood sug­ar, so they can be for those who have dia­betes. Due to the fact that it slows down the absorp­tion of car­bo­hy­drates, it helps to reduce weight. And straw­ber­ries make us hap­pi­er, and all because it con­tributes to the pro­duc­tion of the hor­mone of hap­pi­ness.

5. Popular in star nutrition

Many Hol­ly­wood stars, in par­tic­u­lar Vic­to­ria Beck­ham, try to set aside three days each month and eat only one straw­ber­ry. Such a habit, accord­ing to Vic­to­ria, allows you to stay in good shape. By the way, only 150 grams of these berries will help relieve stress and neu­tral­ize neg­a­tive emo­tions.

How to choose the right strawberries

The first straw­ber­ries appeared on store shelves and mar­ket lay­outs. Which berries to choose to ben­e­fit from the prod­uct?

• It is bet­ter to buy straw­ber­ries in the mar­ket, and not in the store. Super­mar­kets, as a rule, receive only over­seas goods.
• The berries should not have a wet sheen. Be sure to make sure that they are tight to the touch and have no dam­age.
• Large straw­ber­ries look appe­tiz­ing but lack fla­vor and are like­ly full of nitrates. Choose medi­um-sized berries.
• A dis­tinc­tive fea­ture of deli­cious straw­ber­ries is a dark red col­or. In addi­tion, sweet berries have a fra­grant smell.
• Wash the straw­ber­ries in cold water and leave in a warm room for one hour. If dur­ing this time she does not let the juice out, then there are a lot of chem­i­cals in the berries — you should not eat such a prod­uct.
• Ukrain­ian straw­ber­ries appear on sale only at the end of May. The per­fect kind of berries that you see on the shelves now came from Spain or Turkey. Don’t trust sell­ers who claim to be sell­ing a local nat­ur­al prod­uct!
• Remem­ber, ear­ly straw­ber­ries are not sub­ject to long-term stor­age, so you need to eat them with­in one or two days after pur­chase.
• Select not crushed and strong berries that have pedicels. Such straw­ber­ries have not yet lost their sup­ply of vit­a­min C.
• Do not buy too large berries — yes, they are beau­ti­ful, but more watery in taste. By the way, there are as many vit­a­mins in them as in small ones.
• Straw­ber­ries should not have specks — they are a sign of spoilage or chem­i­cal treat­ment.
• On sale you can find light vari­eties and dark­er ones. The first were brought from the sur­round­ing area, the sec­ond — usu­al­ly from the south of Ukraine. So do not think that light straw­ber­ries are unripe, just ask the sell­er where they come from.
• Smell the berries: if they are ripe with­out arti­fi­cial help, they will have a pleas­ant strong aro­ma. And if there is almost none, the straw­ber­ries were treat­ed with chem­i­cals so that they grow faster.
• If pos­si­ble, try the berries before you buy. The taste of met­al indi­cates a high con­tent of nitrates.

Who is contraindicated for strawberries

Straw­ber­ries are con­sid­ered one of the most use­ful, because they con­tain a whole com­plex of vit­a­mins, includ­ing: A, C and B5. It also con­tains iron, potas­si­um, mag­ne­sium, cal­ci­um, phos­pho­rus, zinc, man­ganese, cop­per and sil­i­con. How­ev­er, straw­ber­ries are not for every­one.

Who should give up strawberries?

• First of all, peo­ple suf­fer­ing from gas­tri­tis or pep­tic ulcer should be wary of berries. The fact is that straw­ber­ries irri­tate the mucous mem­brane and can cause a painful con­di­tion.
• Do not get car­ried away with del­i­ca­cy and those who feel pain in the joints — the abuse of straw­ber­ries can aggra­vate the con­di­tion.
• Experts say that the fra­grant berry will not ben­e­fit those who use med­ica­tions for high blood pres­sure based on enapril — in com­bi­na­tion with straw­ber­ries, this com­po­nent gives a big load on the kid­neys.
• Due to their porous struc­ture, straw­ber­ries accu­mu­late pollen, which can cause aller­gies, so aller­gy suf­fer­ers should also be on their guard.

If you do not belong to any of the above cat­e­gories, you can safe­ly enjoy this deli­cious berry, espe­cial­ly since the straw­ber­ry sea­son is so short!

What if I’m allergic to strawberries?

Deny­ing your­self the plea­sure of eat­ing straw­ber­ries? It is worth eat­ing a hand­ful of your favorite berry, how do rash­es, itch­ing, headache and diges­tive prob­lems appear? The symp­toms are indeed char­ac­ter­is­tic of an aller­gy. How­ev­er, do not rush to the diag­no­sis. You may just have a food intol­er­ance to his­t­a­mine. This prob­lem can be eas­i­ly solved!

Straw­ber­ries are not only tasty and fra­grant, but also a very healthy berry. Vit­a­min C, iodine, folic and sal­i­cylic acid con­tained in it help the body resist virus­es and inflam­ma­to­ry process­es. Per­haps that is why they say that those who eat a lot of straw­ber­ries in the sea­son are less sick in win­ter. At the same time, the berry belongs to the list of foods high in his­t­a­mine. Indi­vid­ual food intol­er­ance to this sub­stance caus­es symp­toms that we often con­fuse with aller­gies.

What is histamine food intolerance?

His­t­a­mine is an impor­tant sub­stance that our body pro­duces. This is a medi­a­tor sub­stance that plays an impor­tant role in the reac­tion of the immune sys­tem, respon­si­ble for the body’s defense response to for­eign ele­ments, and also pro­vides a num­ber of oth­er impor­tant process­es.

His­t­a­mine enters the body with food. Its con­tent is high in alco­holic bev­er­ages (espe­cial­ly red wine), cheeses, smoked meat and sausages, fish and seafood (espe­cial­ly if they are canned or stored in brine). Cof­fee, cocoa, soy­beans and tofu, wheat flour, pick­led veg­eta­bles, straw­ber­ries, kiwis, as well as bananas, cit­rus fruits, pears and pineap­ples are also rich in his­t­a­mine.

In most cas­es, his­t­a­mine is absorbed nor­mal­ly. How­ev­er, if the enzyme diamine oxi­dase (DAO) is not pro­duced in suf­fi­cient quan­ti­ties in the body, unpleas­ant symp­toms sim­i­lar to aller­gies appear. These can include itch­ing, hives, red spots on the skin, swelling, cramps, bloat­ing, cramps, diar­rhea, sneez­ing, run­ny nose, cough, headache, pres­sure changes, rapid heart rate, and dizzi­ness. There may be chron­ic man­i­fes­ta­tions: exces­sive fatigue, painful men­stru­a­tion, ner­vous­ness, sleep dis­tur­bances, anx­i­ety and depres­sion.

As you can see, the symp­toms are very sim­i­lar to aller­gies. To make a cor­rect diag­no­sis, you need to under­go an exam­i­na­tion.

How to solve a problem?

First of all, you must, of course, adjust your diet and stick to a diet with a reduced his­t­a­mine con­tent. How­ev­er, this does not mean that you need to for­get about your favorite prod­ucts for­ev­er. To enjoy straw­ber­ries, choco­late, your favorite type of wine and oth­er good­ies, it is enough to take the enzyme diamine oxi­dase (DAO), which is nec­es­sary for the break­down of his­t­a­mine, with food.

Strawberries for beauty

You can make a healthy infu­sion of fresh straw­ber­ries. For this, 2 tbsp. spoons of ripe berries pour a glass of boil­ing water, insist in a ther­mos for 1.5 hours, strain. Take as a diuret­ic and diaphoret­ic half a cup before meals.

But be care­ful: peo­ple with an aller­gy to it, stom­ach ulcers and gas­tri­tis should not eat straw­ber­ries. And for every­one else it is very use­ful to use straw­ber­ries with cream and milk.
To pre­serve youth and beau­ty, it is use­ful to make masks from it.

1. Strawberry mask for dry skin

For dry aging skin, a mask with the addi­tion of olive oil and fresh cot­tage cheese will help. For two parts of soft­ened straw­ber­ries, I add one part of cot­tage cheese and 1–2 tea­spoons of olive oil. The result­ing mass is mixed and applied to the face for 15 min­utes. Then I wash off with water and lubri­cate with cream.

2. Strawberry anti-wrinkle mask

For 2 st. spoons of mashed straw­ber­ries, add 1 tea­spoon of hon­ey and 1 tea­spoon of sour cream. Mix and apply on face for 20 min­utes. Wash off with water and apply cream.

Strawberry recipes: first, second and dessert

Straw­ber­ry sea­son is short, have you just tast­ed real fra­grant sum­mer berries? Then let’s cook deli­cious desserts from them!

Brownie cake with mascarpone cream

Ingre­di­ents: 350 g dark choco­late, 200 g but­ter, 150 g sug­ar, 400 g straw­ber­ries, 3 eggs, 130 g flour, 1/2 tsp. soda, a pinch of salt, 200 ml cream (fat con­tent 33%), 200 g mas­car­pone, 150 g diet cot­tage cheese

Cook­ing:

• Chop the choco­late. Dis­solve half of the but­ter and choco­late over low heat, along with 100 g of sug­ar. Let cool. Wash, peel and dry straw­ber­ries.
• Heat the oven to 170°. Beat eggs and com­bine with choco­late mix­ture. Add sift­ed flour, soda and salt. Mix. Put the result­ing dough into a form lined with parch­ment. Bake 40 min. Let cool and put on a flat plate.
• Whip the cream with the remain­ing sug­ar. Com­bine mas­car­pone with cot­tage cheese and then with sweet cream. Spread the cream over the choco­late cake. Place chopped straw­ber­ries on top. Dec­o­rate as desired and serve imme­di­ate­ly.

Gazpacho with berries

Ingre­di­ents: 300 g of toma­toes, 1 pod of red sweet pep­per, 300 g of straw­ber­ries, 100 g of white bread, 2 tbsp. l. olive oil, 1 tsp. bal­sam­ic vine­gar, 2 sprigs of green basil, ice cubes, salt, pep­per

Cook­ing:

• Dip the toma­toes for half an hour in boil­ing water, then peel. Wash and peel straw­ber­ries. Remove the stalk with seeds from the pep­per pod, cut the pulp into cubes. Cut off the crust from the bread, soak the crumb in cold water.
• Put toma­toes, straw­ber­ries, squeezed bread, sweet pep­pers into a blender bowl. Add oil, vine­gar, 100 ml of cold water, a sprig of basil and chop. Salt and pep­per a lit­tle. Add ice cubes and crush again. Pour into por­tioned plates or bowls and serve, dec­o­rat­ing with leaves from the remain­ing basil sprig.

Jelly with cream

Ingre­di­ents: 30 g gelatin, 300 g straw­ber­ries, 300 ml straw­ber­ry com­pote, 4 tbsp. l. sug­ar, 1 sachet of vanil­la sug­ar, 200 ml cream (fat con­tent 33%), 2 tbsp. l. icing sug­ar, mint leaves for dec­o­ra­tion

Cook­ing:

• Pour gelatin with straw­ber­ry com­pote and leave for 30 min­utes. Wash, peel and pat dry straw­ber­ries on a paper tow­el. Leave a third for dec­o­ra­tion, chop the rest of the berries in a blender. Mix with reg­u­lar and vanil­la sug­ar.
• Dis­solve gelatin in a hot water bath. Whip cream with pow­dered sug­ar. Add 1 tsp. cooled gelatin and stir. Pour into the bot­tom of wide glass­es and refrig­er­ate for 1 hour.
• Com­bine remain­ing gelatin with straw­ber­ry mix­ture. Divide into glass­es and refrig­er­ate for 3 hours. Before serv­ing, dec­o­rate the dessert with berries and mint leaves.

Salad with chicken

Ingre­di­ents: 250 g chick­en fil­let, 150 g straw­ber­ries, 70 g let­tuce, 125 g moz­zarel­la, 2 sprigs of greens, 2 tbsp. l. pine nuts, 1 tsp bal­sam­ic vine­gar, 4 tbsp. l. olive oil, salt, ground pep­per

Cook­ing:

• Wash the chick­en fil­let, dip it in boil­ing salt­ed water and cook after boil­ing again for 40 min­utes. Let cool and cut.
• Wash the straw­ber­ries, peel and dry well, lay­ing out on a paper tow­el. Wash let­tuce, dry and tear. Cut moz­zarel­la balls into halves.
• Wash and dry the greens. Tear off the leaves and fine­ly chop. Roast the pine nuts in a dry fry­ing pan.
• Com­bine vine­gar with olive oil. Add salt and pep­per to taste. Mix all the sal­ad ingre­di­ents, pour over the result­ing sauce and sprin­kle with pine nuts.

Strawberry diet: how to lose weight and cleanse the body

Sum­mer is a great oppor­tu­ni­ty to enjoy sweet berries and lose weight at the same time! On a straw­ber­ry diet, you can lose 3–4 kg in 3 days and cleanse the body.

Principle of the strawberry diet

If you want to lose weight, but you can not give up sweets, the straw­ber­ry diet is what you need. For three unload­ing days, it is real­ly pos­si­ble to lose 3–4 kg. Straw­ber­ries have a lot of seeds, because this berry is a rich source of fiber, which improves bow­el func­tion and helps to reduce weight and cleanse the body. That is, the straw­ber­ry diet also has a detox effect. In addi­tion, com­pared to many fruits, straw­ber­ries have a much low­er glycemic index (the abil­i­ty to raise blood sug­ar). And final­ly, they con­tain many valu­able vit­a­mins, trace ele­ments and fruit acids.

Menu for strawberry diet

Dur­ing fast­ing days on straw­ber­ries, the num­ber of berries can be 400–500 g per day. But you need to eat them not in one sit­ting, but even­ly dis­trib­ut­ing them through­out the day. Just be sure to com­bine straw­ber­ries with oth­er prod­ucts. For exam­ple, for break­fast, eat whole grain por­ridge in water with­out sug­ar (150 g) with straw­ber­ries. Or 150 g of cot­tage cheese casse­role with berries.

For a snack, make a smooth­ie of straw­ber­ries, oat­meal or yogurt, or drink a glass of fruit drink. For lunch, you can eat a veg­etable sal­ad with cot­tage cheese, nuts, herbs and berries. For din­ner — steamed fish with stewed veg­eta­bles with berries (pump­kin, zuc­chi­ni, onions, car­rots, straw­ber­ries or black cur­rants).

Important nuances

Berries can be added to dish­es whole or chopped with a blender along with the skin and seeds. But squeez­ing juice out of them is not the best option, since in this case the most valu­able thing for weight loss and detox is lost — fiber. In addi­tion, the juice in its pure form irri­tates the gas­tric mucosa.

Keep in mind: raw berries may be con­traindi­cat­ed in exac­er­ba­tions of dis­eases of the gas­troin­testi­nal tract, liv­er and pan­creas, as well as with increased acid­i­ty of the stom­ach. In these cas­es, before going on a straw­ber­ry diet, you need to con­sult a doc­tor.

Straw­ber­ries are one of the health­i­est sum­mer berries you should def­i­nite­ly try! Choose any method and enjoy!