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Recipes with Strawberries: Banana Strawberry Smoothie
A ruby red strawberry will simply burst in your mouth and flood your tongue with pure delight. Bite sized and almost too easy to eat, you might find yourself gobbling up one juicy strawberry after another while enjoying their delectably tart sweetness. The symbol of love for the ancient Greeks, these plump little heart-shaped fruits gush with a myriad of health benefits. With each bite the cooling juice refreshes and hydrates your palate, as the slight roughness of the seeds brush against your tongue. Their succulent flavor and texture are universally adored and were even regarded by the ancient Chinese as the queen of fruits.
Gentle, Nourishing, & Easy to Digest
As delicate as they may look, the sourness you experience while savoring a strawberry stimulates the appetite, and moistens the entire gastrointestinal tract from mouth to final elimination. Next time you pucker while eating a strawberry, notice how this invigorating little fruit strengthens your entire digestive system, even helping to dislodge stagnant and undigested food as it reduces feelings of heaviness. Strawberries can also help soothe an irritated, inflamed stomach.
The sweet cool nectar of a strawberry encourages the production of body fluids, moisturizes muscles, and nourishes the kidneys. Want to satiate your thirst? Nibble on fresh, ripe strawberries. The juicy tartness of strawberry rejuvenates and revives you, while at the same time recollecting scattered thoughts and grounding the heart & nervous system.
Its nourishing minerals and rejuvenative qualities, in an easy to digest package, make strawberries an ideal supplement for the elderly, those recuperating from illness, and after strenuous physical activity. According to the Chamber's Edinburgh Journal, No. 462, strawberries are well suited for invalids, as they do not produce acetous (aerobic) fermentation in the stomach.
So, go ahead and indulge in strawberries!
Recipes with Strawberries: Lemon & Berries Italian Ice
Radiant, Healthy Looking Skin & Teeth
Strawberries are highly purifying, able to permeate the skin and pores. Packed with vitamin C and salicylic acid, strawberry helps to remove dead skin cells when used topically. In summer, capillary beds in the skin dilate to release heat, leaving the skin red and inflamed with a tendency towards rashes. The mild astringency of strawberry tones and whitens the skin as it reduces this blood flow. They are even ideal for remedying slight irregularities in skin pigmentation, lightening freckles. They have a protective skin property that soothes and heals mild sunburn. For smooth, bright and glowing skin, rub mashed strawberry juice over your entire face immediately after washing. For greater effect, leave the sweet-smelling strawberry pulp on your face as a mask for 15-20 minutes.
Want whiter teeth and fresher breath? Since strawberries are astringent and contain vitamin C, they help to remove surface stains and soften built-up plaque. Gentle apply the juice or pulp of a few strawberries directly onto your teeth and leave for five minutes. Rinse with warm water and a pinch of bicarbonate of soda. This natural tooth whitener will be sure to leave you smiling!
Cooling Liver Tonic
As we invite the warmth of the summer season, and our external environment starts to heat up, we start to feel our internal heat build as well. The heart rate increases as the temperature rises. Blood vessels dilate. Muscles feel heavy and fatigued. Excess blood flow irritates the eyes, which may seem stressed and dry. Naturally you'll become more social as well. But as the heat rises, you may even feel hot, irritated and impulsive. Your body cries out to be soothed and cooled.
Ayurvedically, all the above heat symptoms are signs that summer heat stresses the liver and spleen. Fortunately the cooling qualities of strawberries can help! Their slightly sweet and slightly sour taste offer an ideal liver restorative, alterative and blood coolant. You'll notice the relaxing effect on the eyes, and better focus to boot, within ten minutes of eating a strawberry.
Summer Berries
Summer berries, like the ruby red strawberry, arrive just in time for hot June temperatures. Blue, red and purple berries like strawberry are often sour, slightly sweet, high in beta-carotene, vitamin C and other blood purifying nutrients. Foods, like strawberries, that are high in beta-carotene lower the risk of having age-related macular degeneration, the main cause of vision loss in older adults, by up to 36%. Consume these berries by the handful as they also reduce internal heat, soothe inflamed tissues, and cool your blood. Over-indulge over the weekend? Too much fun sipping summer cocktails? Berries, and especially strawberries can help detox your liver and reduce a lingering hangover.
Most of us have heard about anti-oxidants, and we're told that we need them. Antioxidants neutralize harmful molecules called free radicals. Well, strawberries and most summer berries are chock-full of anti-oxidants. Strawberries also contain anti-carcinogens, a natural food chemical that reduces the occurrence of cancers. Like many members of the rose family, strawberries contain an enzyme called malic acid, known to gently cleanse and restore the liver.
Recipes with Strawberries: Peach & Strawberry Smoothie
Lung, Blood Sugar, and Other Health Benefits
As sweet as they are, research studies have shown that the sweetness of strawberries helps regulate blood sugar response. The sweetness and sourness of strawberries helps to moisten the lungs alleviating respiratory dryness. It's blood balancing properties have been used in feverish conditions. It has also been recommended for kidneys stones and difficult urination.
About Strawberries
The ruby red strawberry has been long appreciated for its unique aroma, bright red color, juicy texture, and sweetness. The first garden strawberry was bred in the 18th century in France. Prior to this, most strawberries were either harvested wild or from cultivated "wild" species.
Buying & Preparation
Buy firm, free of mold, shiny, with deep red color, preferably with the stem attached. Strawberries, like most berries, are easy targets for insects. Conventional strawberries often require heavy pesticide use. Avoid eating inorganic strawberries, as pesticide residues accumulate where the seeds attach to the body of the fruit. Strawberries rot quickly after purchasing. Strawberries should be washed, any rotten spots removed, and then dried upon buying. They should be placed in a paper bag or with a paper towel that will wick away moisture. Strawberries remain fresh in the refrigerator 2 days.
Cooking Strawberries
Strawberry is featured in preserves, fruit juice, pies, ice creams, sherbets, milkshakes, and chocolates. To maximize the strawberry flavor, try slicing strawberries and gently mixing them with 1/4tsp sugar with 1 tsp lemon juice. Strawberries also combine well with limes, rhubarb and kiwis, lemon zest and mint, or with peaches or bananas in smoothies.
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You'll learn your body type, and whether 'Strawberries' is a good fit.
Complete the basic quiz in 1 minute, or go deeper with additional quizzes
at your own leisure to learn more about your body.
AYURVEDA'S GUIDE TO VITALITY & WHOLESOME NOURISHMENT
Your Ayurvedic diet is tailored to your individual body and your specific imbalances.
With an Ayurvedic diet you feel joy and satisfaction because what you are eating truly nourishes and balances you.
Disease results from diets and lifestyles that are incompatible with your nature.
By eating a personalized diet matched to your body, you experience optimal health.
See How it Works.
Ayurveda assesses metabolic imbalances through 20 main biocharacteristics
(gunas).
Aggravating them weakens your body and causes imbalance.
By knowing which biocharacteristics are habitually imbalanced in your body, you will be able to identify and correct metabolic imbalances before you get sick.
Every biocharacteristic has an opposite which balances it (i.e. hot balances cold).
You restore balance by favoring diet and lifestyle choices that increase the opposite biocharacteristic.
Taste is used to sense the most basic properties and effects of food.
Each taste has a specific medicinal effect on your body.
Cravings for food with certain tastes indicate your body is craving specific medicinal results from food.
Taste is experienced on the tongue and represents your body's reaction to foods.
Sweet taste causes physical satisfaction and attraction whereas bitter taste causes discomfort and aversion.
Kapha should use less sweet taste while Vata and Pitta would benefit from using more sweet taste.
One of the first signs of illness is that your taste and appetite for food changes.
The six tastes are sweet, sour, salty, pungent, bitter, and astringent.
Do you crave foods with any of the tastes below?
Ayurveda is a metabolic theory of medicine that explains individual health, tendencies, and disease patterns through the concept of doshas, which can be understood as your metabolic patterns and tendencies.
Each dosha reflects a distinct metabolic nature and describes strengths & weaknesses in bodily function, and how these affect energy levels, digestion, susceptibility to disease, and many other tendencies.
Your metabolic nature not only affects your physical characteristics, but also influences your mental thought patterns, confidence, and enthusiasm.
Ayurveda balances these metabolic strengths & weaknesses to support your body's vitality and prevent recurrent disease cycles. This support is a critical aid, especially in chronic or incurable disease conditions.
The 3 metabolic body types
(doshas),
are Catabolic (Vata), Metabolic (Pitta), and Anabolic (Kapha).
Through dosha, Ayurveda empowers people to identify metabolic imbalances early, break repetitive patterns of disease, and cultivate habits that support long-term vitality and well-being.
Ultimately, these metabolic patterns also provide a framework for understanding yourself, including body, mind, and spiritual tendencies.
Ayurveda & Greek Medicine were the dominant form of medicine along the Silk Road from England to China and South Asia.
They work by assessing your metabolic type, patterns, and nature.
Greek medicine recognizes 4 metabolic temperaments, Melancholic, Choleric, Sanguine, and Phlegmatic.
Has a hot and dry metabolic nature. Enthusiastic, vibrant and bright. In excess burns up fluids and ojas, irritable. Corresponds to high bilirubin in the blood that irritates and heats up the body and liver.
Cold and dry with a slow, variable or erratic metabolism. Colicky, tense. Withdrawn, pensive, anxious, and hesitant. Analytical, intelligent, detail oriented and creative. Prone to ojas depletion, dehydration, an overactive nervous system, and depression.
A Phlegmatic has a cold and wet metabolic nature. The coldness implies a slow metabolism, the moisture that you are well-nourished. Phlegmatics tend towards sluggishness and thickened fluids, including mucus.
A hot and oily nature with a moderate metabolism and a well nourished body makes Sanguine individuals vigorous, vivacious, outgoing and generous, and prone to impulsivity and self indulgence. Bullish and intense when out of balance.
Medicinal Benefits, Uses & Herbal Actions of Strawberries
Experiences are Personal
Experiences vary according to the person and constitution. Individual results may vary.
The list of herbal-actions below has not be approved by the FDA and should not be used to treat a medical condition.
A sialogogue increases saliva. Sour foods are often great sialogogues, and increase output of all exocrine glands. Salty taste is very moistening as well. Bitter, pungent and sweettastes also increase salivary output but to a
lesser degree. Astringents.
STRONG ANTIOXIDANT
An antioxidant is a molecule that inhibits oxidation. Oxidation is a chemical reaction that can produce free radicals that lead to a chain reaction causing damage or death to cells. Antioxidants terminate these oxidation reactions.
Restores the proper function of the body by cleansing the blood and balancing blood chemistry. In Ayurveda terms, they pacify Pitta in rakta. They were traditionally used to revitalize and detoxify after a long winter.
An herb that strengthens the liver. It is helpful for people with a history of substance abuse, chronic liver issues from hepatitis and hemolytic anemias. Generally, liver tonics are oily, cool, sweet, mildly sour, or contain beta-carotene.
Strawberries may be beneficial for these symptoms.
The suitability of any food for a condition is highly dependent on the individual.
Please see your doctor before using this food to treat a medical condition.
We will use this information to better predict food that helps you.
CONTRAINDICATED FOR THESE SYMPTOMS
Strawberries may be harmful or contraindicated for these symptoms.
Note this is not a complete list of all possible contraindications.
Please see your doctor before using this food to treat a medical condition.
Herb Drug Interaction Risk
Here are some potential herb drug interactions with Strawberries. Please see your health care provider for more information.
Alterative: Anything that strengthens or cleanses the liver can clear drugs more quickly, requiring a higher dose.
Livotonic: Anything that strengthens or cleanses the liver can clear drugs more quickly, requiring a higher dose.
View other ingredients for Summer
Strawberries is recommended for Summer. Check out these other Summer foods here.
Eating Ayurvedically makes you feel nourished and energized. Food digests with ease when
right for your body type (dosha). Healthy digestion is seen as the cornerstone of well-being in
Ayurveda. Healthy digestion generally prevents illness. If you do get sick, a strong digestive fire
reduces the severity of illness and increases your resilience. It also improves your mood. Once
you begin eating Ayurvedically, you will feel refreshed, vital and strong.
John Immel, the founder of Joyful Belly, teaches people how to have a
healthy diet and lifestyle with Ayurveda.
His approach to Ayurveda is clinical, yet exudes an ease which many find enjoyable and insightful.
John also directs the Joyful Belly College of Ayurveda,
offering professional clinical training in Ayurveda for over 15 years.
John's hobbies & specialties include advanced digestive disorders, medieval Catholic philosophy,
& botany. He holds a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Harvard University.
John, his wife Natalie and their 7 kids live in Asheville, NC
“Strawberries are very aggravating for me as an inflamed pitta. Maybe due to the sourness and my personal imbalances. It makes my face red and hot. Non-organic are also heavy on the pesticides or mold."
“Strawberries can be aggravating for Pitta types due to their sour and slightly heating qualities, which can contribute to inflammation, redness, and heat in the body. While they do have some cooling properties, their acidity may still provoke Pitta imbalances, especially in individuals already experiencing heat-related symptoms like flushed skin or irritation.
Additionally, non-organic strawberries are known to carry high pesticide residues and may have mold, both of which can further stress a sensitive system. If you still want to enjoy strawberries, consider:
Opting for organic to reduce pesticide exposure.
Pairing them with cooling foods like coconut, milk, or ghee to balance their effects.
Testing small amounts to see how your body reacts before consuming more.
Listening to your body's response is key in Ayurveda, and it sounds like you're already in tune with what works and what doesn't for your constitution!"
Want our top Ayurvedic recipes and health tips? Subscribe to our free newsletter!
* These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.
The information and products on this website are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any
disease.
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