Strawberries against the Sun

My daughter doesn’t like fruit. I am embarrassed to admit this and I can’t understand it at all! It just isn’t possible with our genes, because the rest of our family devours kilos of apples, oranges, cherries and strawberries weekly. Three of my children even eat whole lemons (although that’s not my personal preference).

I can’t understand it?

I’ve tried everything, but this particular daughter would rather eat three plates full of sprouts than swallow that one strawberry hidden in a yoghurt. But now that I have seen a study undertaken by a team of Italian and Spanish researchers, I don’t want to hear any more excuses. Even more proof that you just need to eat fruit. We already knew it about certain berries, but the study has revealed that the ordinary Dutch strawberry also protects us against damaging UVA rays. There was less damage to the skin cells which had strawberry extract added to them and they lived longer than skin cells without the strawberry extract added. The anthocyanins in the strawberries (which also make the lovely red colour) not only have a protecting effect against the sun, but are also anti-inflammatory.

A strange colour

Creams with strawberry extract sound very appealing. Yet I can see a practical problem here. In order to have a protecting effect a large amount of the red colouring will need to be added to the skincare product. The result; a red face cream. I came across the same problem when producing my own skincare line. Many nature derived substances give a product an unattractive colour when added in high concentrations. Examples of such ingredients are Quercetin, Lycopene, Silymarin, Grape seed and Carotene. Such substances can do wonderful things for your skin, but when I saw the first mustard coloured and rusty brown coloured samples I thought to myself that the current generation of ‘users’ probably weren’t quite ready for this. It wasn’t a wasted effort though, as this experience has made me realise that a white cream advertising one of these substances on the label is almost certainly not worth the money…. And if any of you are ready for a strange coloured cream then let me know. For now, without any further notice I’m going to tuck into the strawberries. Together with my daughter.

Regards Jetske.

(Dr. Jetske Ultee-Research Physician Cosmetic Dermatology)

You can also read the blogs:
‘Caffeine’,
‘Argan Oil; The New Wonder Drug?‘,
‘Green Tea’,
‘Do Anti-Oxidants Also Work in a Cream?‘,
‘Angel Dusting’.