Are Strawberries Good For Weight Loss? How Strawberry Diet Works 2024

If you’re forming a weight loss plan, you may be starting to look into what low-carb fruits and vegetables will best fit in. Are strawberries good for weight loss? Short answer: Yes!

Among other superfoods, strawberries may be one of the best fruits for weight loss and to satisfy a sweet tooth craving. Known to many as “the queen of fruits,” strawberries are incredibly nutrient-dense.

They are high in filling-fiber content and low in calories. They are so low in calories that you can eat them several times a day guilt-free. 

Strawberries contain specific properties that may be beneficial if you’re looking for food sources to help you lose weight and benefit your overall health, like:

• Brain-boosting antioxidants
• Anti-cancer compounds
• Digestion-smoothing fiber
• Heart-healthy flavonoids
• Diabetes-fighting anthocyanins

This article will take a closer look at this favorite fruit’s potential for weight loss, its benefits, and how to add these to your daily routine.

Are Strawberries Good For Weight Loss?

Do strawberries help you lose weight? Yes, this nearly fat-free fruit may be able to help your weight loss efforts. Every human is different, but strawberries show potential in assisting with boosting metabolism, burning fat, preventing weight gain, and increasing the coveted brown adipose tissue.

Brown adipose tissue is the kind of fat that is good to have when it comes to weight management. It heats us when we get cold, and this thermogenic effect burns calories at a high enough rate to promote losing weight. Certain things you’re eating can increase the amount and activity of brown adipose tissue. 

In this study examining which natural extracts^[1] help turn white fat into brown fat, strawberry extract reveals the ability to do just that: browning the body’s white fat cells, thereby increasing the potential for fat burning and weight loss. 

Furthermore, the strawberry extract also shows the ability to increase levels of a protein called AMPKa, which helps enhance metabolism, promote fat burning, and stabilize^[2] your craving for calories.  

Eating fruits with soluble fiber, like strawberries, means they will absorb water in your digestive system and become gel-like. This type of fiber helps you feel more satisfied for longer times and crave fewer calories, and it can aid in weight loss,^[3] making strawberries an ideal food if you’re trying to lose weight.  

Strawberries have a naturally occurring compound called anthocyanins that are said to be able to prevent and reverse obesity^[4] and metabolism-disrupting diseases. They have the potential to burn fat that your body is storing, which can help get you closer to your weight loss goals.  

What other fruits prevent weight gain? Despite the widespread belief that eating fruit might make you gain weight due to its natural sugar content, they have several effects on maintaining healthy body weight, particularly the ones that are low-calorie and high in fiber. Many fruits like this one are also low in sugar. Besides strawberries, here are a few other helpful fruits to eat:

• Raspberries
• Bananas
• Pears
• Guava
• Apples
• Blueberries 

Sometimes, obesity can be due to genetic dispositions, meaning the struggle with being overweight runs in the family. Studies show that increasing fruit and vegetable intake^[5] can reduce the risk of obesity associated with genetics.

You may have heard of the strawberry diet fad that encourages people to eat only strawberries or combine them with a tiny amount of other low-calorie food. It’s important to understand that one-food diets can lead to a nutrient and calorie deficit, doing more harm than good.

For example, you might see an initial weight loss, but the cost can be high when you don’t have a well-balanced diet plan. 

Strawberries can still help you lose weight by including them in one or more daily meals, in addition to foods that promote weight loss, nutrients, and more calories than strawberries alone.  

What’s more, added sugar^[6] can cause an increase in your appetite and increase your chances of gaining weight, making it a good idea to start substituting your processed sugar choices with fruit’s natural sugars. The more fruit intake you have, the more sugar and calories you consume, so like any other food, moderation is key. 

So considering the anthocyanins, dietary fiber, ability to increase AMPK, and brown fat, if you’re interested in food to help you lose weight, including strawberry servings into your healthy diet may be worth the effort. 

Benefits Of Strawberries

Strawberries pack a nutritional punch regarding the superfood qualities it contains. They are rich in vitamins and minerals like:

• Potassium
• Magnesium
• Folate
• Beta-carotene
• vitamin C 
• Vitamin K

One-cup serving size of strawberries^[7] is only 48 calories and has three grams of fiber per serving. With only seven grams of sugar per serving, the highly nutritious strawberries may be one of the best fruits that promotes weight loss, but eating these also provides several other health benefits besides helping you lose weight. 

Anti-Cancer Effects

Strawberries have trans-resveratrol, an anti-inflammatory polyphenol that has shown the ability to inhibit the growth of specific cancer types. When strawberry extracts^[8] went through testing with other berries in fighting cancer cells, this queen of berries had the most significant impact, especially against oral, breast, colon, liver,^[9], and prostate cancer cells.

Improve Brain Health

Except for reflexes, the brain controls all aspects of the body’s function, like walking, talking, and learning abilities. A clinical trial^[10] involving 21 females and three weeks of consuming frozen strawberries gave results of a significant increase in antioxidant capacity, making it a good source for brain health.

The antioxidants and anti-inflammatory properties in strawberries help improve brain function^[11] and may even reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease with anti-aging effects.

Boost Heart Health

Strawberries are cholesterol-free. They can benefit you with their anti-inflammatory enzymes and phytochemicals that reduce stress and damage to the heart.^[12] 

In addition to reducing the inflammation that results in atherosclerosis in the peripheral vascular system, they can help protect against heart disease by lowering the amounts of plaque buildup^[13] inside the heart’s own arteries. 

Improve Digestive System Health

Strawberries contain fiber that is essential for gut health. It softens stool and helps to pass it easily and efficiently through the intestines, preventing constipation. Dietary fiber is a “prebiotic,” feeding your good gut bacteria,^[14] and a healthy digestive tract can provide you with a good metabolism.^[15]

Diabetes Prevention 

Diabetes is a disease characterized by trouble controlling blood sugar levels and can lead to several unwanted health conditions, like heart disease, diabetic neuropathy, kidney disease, and even blindness. This fruit’s fiber helps slow down the digestion of sugars, so the fruit’s sugar is absorbed at a slow pace, putting you at a lower risk of blood sugar spikes. 

Choosing to eat non-starchy^[16] foods like strawberries puts less of a burden on your insulin levels and can reduce cravings. Strawberries contain anthocyanins,^[17] and they have the potential to prevent and reverse type 2 diabetes and obesity and improve insulin resistance, giving them one more badge in the superfood category.

Adding Strawberries To Your Diet

Are strawberries good for a diet? Yes, adding strawberries for weight loss to your daily diet can be easy and fun, especially if you have a sweet tooth. These make an excellent substitute for high-calorie foods or unhealthy added sugars and can help you curb your cravings. 

You can find fresh and frozen strawberries in stores all year or, during peak season, find a farm to pick your own. 

If you’re eating them raw, first rinse them off well. They have a green leafy stem that can be pulled out or cut off before you eat them. 

Some people eat fruit at breakfast, lunch, and dinner as well as make a great snack or low-calorie dessert after a meal. 

You can add strawberries to your drinks as a natural sweetener. That’s right, infuse some into your lemon water for extra flavor, or freeze them and use them as an impressive ice replacement. You can also blend fresh strawberries to increase the naturally sweet taste of a healthy smoothie. 

It is most common to eat raw strawberries for weight loss, but they can be grilled, baked into a pie like green apples, or dehydrated for an on-the-go snack. Here are some other ways to feast on a serving of these red berries:

• Jelly, jams, and preserves (without added sugars)
• As a cereal, pancake, or waffle topping 
• Slices of the fruit on a nut butter sandwich 
• Fruit dips
• On top of a leafy green salad 
• Dipped in melted dark chocolate 
• Fruit salsa
• Strawberry butter 
• A cup of strawberry fruit tea 

The Bottom Line

There are many reasons why fruits have a daily recommended intake of four one-cup servings. If the only fruit you have on hand is strawberries, think of all the overall health benefits you can still receive. 

It has very few calories and is rich in nutrients that can help boost your metabolism. This superfood is one of the best fruits to help increase your chances of reducing your weight. Consuming this queen of berries can reduce inflammation, decrease your risk for heart disease, fight against cancer, and more. 

Remember, you need a wide variety of vitamins and minerals in your weight-loss diet and a certain amount^[18] of calorie intake per day, so beware the concept of a single-food diet of strawberries can result in deficiencies of the essentials you need while otherwise seeking healthy weight loss. 

So, eat strawberries at any meal you choose if you have no dietary restrictions, but make sure to include other healthy foods into your day for optimal results.   

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