Is Huge Strawberry Health?

Spring is the season of strawberries. Recently, there are extraordinarily large and red strawberries on the market which are well received by customers. They look attractive and taste good. However, they bring dangers to our health at the same time. They are harmful to people, especially to patients of kidney diseases

A Danger to Health: Huge Strawberries

Author: Yan Hu

Spring is the season of strawberries. Recently, there are extraordinarily large and red strawberries on the market which are well received by customers. They look attractive and taste good. However, they bring dangers to our health at the same time. They are harmful to people, especially to patients of kidney diseases.

As we know, except nutrition such as vitamins and minerals, strawberries are rich in carotene, citric acid, dextrose, laevulose as well as riboflavin. These nutriments are quite necessary to the growth of children. However, huge strawberries do not make contribution to the health, but lay heavy burdens to our organs. It is because that some ripening agents and fruit-expanders are added to the fertilizers in the hope of growing huge and beautiful strawberries. These chemicals accelerate the segmentation of cells so that strawberries are unexpectedly huge in size. But such strawberries are dangerous to our health. If consumers eat the chemicals by accident, their kidneys could not work as usual.

In fact, some strawberries are born to be big. For example, the Japanese strawberries are famous for their large sizes. They could be as heavy as 100 grams. But most of the time, the huge sizes of strawberries are the results of fruit-expanders. Although these chemicals do expand the sizes, they would make strawberries become easy to rot and less nutritious. If there are harmful chemicals left in them, strawberries would be harmful to health. Therefore, it is important to distinguish such strawberries from ordinary ones.

Then how can we avoid eating such unhealthy strawberries? First of all, we should judge the quality by their shapes. Normal strawberries are of the shape of heart, while huge strawberries are usually of conic shapes. If their shapes are too weird, do not choose them. Secondly, if the hormones are used in the growing process, the color of strawberries would not be evenly distributed. Sometimes, they would look green at the bottom and red at the top. Thirdly, the seeds on the surface of normal strawberries are golden, while the seeds of inferior ones are rather red. Fourthly, if you break off with fingers, you will find low qualities strawberries are white and empty in the middle. But ordinary strawberries are full. In addition, we can judge them by their tastes. We all know that good strawberries are sweet, but huge ones are tasteless. Besides, strawberries are grown in the ground and they are easy to be polluted by bacteria. So we have to keep in mind that even normal strawberries should be carefully washed before eating.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/diseases-and-conditions-articles/a-danger-to-health-huge-strawberries-4604373.html

About the Author

Yan Hu is the freelance writer for e-commerce website in the chemistry. LookChem.com is just a place for you to Look for Chemicals! Our LookChem provide the most convenient conditions for the international buyers and let these leads benefit all the business person.

Huge Strawberry

Best Strawberry Smoothie Recipes

7 Delicious Strawberry Smoothie Recipes

Author: Shelly Hill

7 Delicious Strawberry Smoothie Recipes

Are you a smoothie lover? Looking for some new smoothie recipes that use strawberries? If so, I would like to share 7 of my favorite strawberry smoothie recipes with you.

Let's take a look at why strawberries are good for you. Strawberries are high in Vitamin C and a great source of dietary fiber. Strawberries may help to prevent heart attacks, strokes, cancer and Alzheimer's disease.

All of these smoothie recipes use strawberries, along with some additional ingredients. If you are looking to cut calories, you can substitute the milk with skim milk, or the ice cream with low-fat yogurt.

If you like your smoothies really sweet, try adding 1-2 tablespoons of honey to your recipe. I always serve my smoothies in a chilled glass, but you can serve them any way that you like. You can drink them straight from the glass, use a straw or eat them with a spoon. It is best to always serve your smoothies immediately.

Strawberry Mango

1 c. fresh or frozen strawberries, sliced
1/2 c. mango, cubed
1/4 c. orange juice
6 ice cubes
1 tsp. honey, optional

Place all ingredients into a blender and blend well. Makes 12 ounces.

Lemon Strawberry

1 whole lemon peeled and de-seeded
4 lg. fresh strawberries, sliced
1 tbsp. plus 1 tsp. sugar
1/8 c. water
8 ice cubes

Place all ingredients into a blender and blend well. Makes 12 ounces.

Strawberry Frost

1 (14 oz.) can sweetened condensed milk
1 (8 ounce) container plain yogurt
6 oz. frozen strawberry juice concentrate
2-3 c. ice cubes

In blender container, combine sweetened condensed milk, yogurt and juice concentrate. Cover and blend until smooth. With blender running add in ice cubes, blending until smooth. Makes 4 servings.

Lemon Strawberry Crush

1 1/2 c. low-fat milk
1 1/2 tsp. lemonade-flavor soft drink mix
1 (8 ounce) vanilla low-fat yogurt
1 c. frozen strawberries
1 cup of ice cubes

Mix all of the above ingredients in a blender and blend on high speed until smooth. Makes 4 one-cup serving.

Double Strawberry

1/2 c. fresh strawberries
1/2 c. strawberry milk
1 c. vanilla yogurt
3/4 c. milk
whipped topping

Combine all ingredients except whipped topping in a blender. Blend until smooth. Pour into large glasses and top with whipped topping. Makes 2 servings.

Strawberry Chocolate

1/2 c. chocolate frozen yogurt
3/4 c. strawberry yogurt
1/2 c. frozen strawberries, sliced
1 tsp. sugar (optional)
ice cubes

Place ingredients in a blender and process until smooth. Makes 1 large serving.

Strawberry Sherbet

2 pts. strawberry sherbet, softened
1 1/2 c. cold milk
2 c. frozen strawberries, thawed
2 tsp. honey, optional

In blender combine all ingredients. Blend until smooth. Makes 6 servings.

You can make these smoothie recipes for breakfast, or as a healthy snack. I hope you find these recipes just as delicious as I do.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/recipes-articles/7-delicious-strawberry-smoothie-recipes-884935.html

About the Author

Shelly Hill has been working from home since 1989 in Direct Sales. You can visit Shelly online at: http://www.classybusinesswomen.com or at http://wahmshelly.blogspot.com

Best Strawberry Smoothie Recipes

Strawberry Recipes

3 No Recipe Uses For The Season's Best Strawberries

Author: Chef Todd Mohr

No recipe will tell me what to do when it's strawberry season. It's one of the great seasonal joys in fresh food, and I take full advantage of the short time. The best strawberries come from your local farm, local farmer, local rain and soil.

I celebrate the beginning of strawberry season with a visit to DJ's Berry Patch and speak with Jessica, the owner/farmer.

Strawberries are one of the most difficult crops to grow because of the long season, hard labor, and fragile nature of the fruit. It takes a lot of time, effort, and money to grow the best strawberries, but the difference is worth it and worth your money as well.

If you bite into a strawberry and it's white in the middle, you don't have the freshest berry. The likelihood is that this berry was picked before ripe and shipped long distances, robbing you of the great flavor and nutrients that fresh strawberries can offer.

For the best strawberries, visit your local farm and eat them when they're in-season. I'd rather have fantastic, flavorful strawberries for only a month than access to bland berries all year long.

Now that I'm taking home a big bucket of fresh berries, but I don't want to waste a lot of time searching for strawberry recipes. I want to make some quick and easy dishes using the valuable fruit, no recipe required.

Using my knowledge of successes I've had in the past, and basic cooking methods, I've decided to make Strawberry Pancakes, Strawberry Syrup, and a Balsamic Strawberry salad.

Strawberry pancakes are one of my favorite items to make when I get a hold of great, fresh strawberries. The flavor of the best strawberries that are just-picked baked into a griddle cake is a true summer pleasure.

I can even make the pancakes with a pre-made mix. However, Aunt Jemima is over 100 years old. Her hot cakes don't spring up like they used to.

I want my fresh diced strawberries to be surrounded by pancake batter, not have them sticking out the top because the mixture is too thin. What I need is extra leavening to make a pancake that has strawberries inside.

Luckily, with a basic knowledge of baking principles and leavening agents, I can give the old lady a facelift and no recipe is needed. By adding baking powder and citric acid to the boxed mix, I can get an extra chemical reaction for the biggest, fluffiest strawberry pancakes ever.

Even strawberry pancakes made with a boxed mix can be customed for my liking. Aunt Jemima never looked so good after the facelift we've given her.

This same principle can be used for banana pancakes, blueberry pancakes, chocolate chip pancakes, granola pancakes, and many more.

But, I still have a lot of fruit in my bucket and I want to preserve as well as enjoy the best strawberries I'll have all year. Strawberry sauce is a great solution because it can be used as an ingredient in other foods and the sugar syrup will preserve the fresh fruit flavor as well.

Strawberry sauce can be made like candy syrup when you know the right temperature.

All it takes is strawberries, sugar, water, and a thermometer to apply a No Recipe approach to making syrup from fresh fruit that is naturally sweet and has a smooth texture.

After capping and dicing the fresh berries, I'll bring them to a soft simmer in a sauce pan with water and a spoonful of sugar.

I'm not trying to sweeten the strawberry sauce by adding sugar. I'm using the best strawberries, so they already have the best flavor. A small amount of added sugar will "set" the color of the berries, inhibiting their desire to turn brown after being pureed.

However, there's an extra trick I'll show you that will keep the strawberry sauce from cooling and forming sugar crystals. Remember our friend Cream of Tartar from the strawberry pancakes we just made? It'll have an entirely different roll in strawberry sauce.

Cream of Tartar helped in the chemical reaction needed to give Aunt Jemima a facelift and leaven pancakes. Today, the acidic quality of this bake shop staple will help inhibit crystallization of sugars in our strawberry sauce.

Once the sauce cools, sugar crystals can start to form crunchy bits in the syrup. I certainly don't want a crunchy sauce, so just the "tip of the knife" of an acid will help limit this effect. There is no recipe that will alert you to this.

Strawberry sauce can be used for dozens of applications during the spring and summer. I love to use it for drinks, to decorate dessert plates, or to flavor and moisten a cake. It's a simple way to preserve your strawberry picking efforts and create an ingredient you can use again and again.

However, not everything you make with the best strawberries has to be sweet. Even a fresh strawberry salad doesn't always have to be sweet. I'm going to play with my diner's palates by throwing sour and bitter at them too!

The real art and talent of a great chef or cook is to manipulate the palate of the people you're serving. I'm going to hit on all four of the senses on the tongue with one single salad.

Since my fresh strawberries are so sweet, I'm going to off-set that sensation with balsamic vinegar, a sour liquid. Then, perhaps raw onion and honey to really wake up the mouth.

However, the salad I'll make today with no recipe will attempt to combine flavors that will play contrast with the sweet fresh-picked fruit.

Since my fresh strawberries are so sweet, I'm going to off-set that sensation with balsamic vinegar, a sour liquid. Then, perhaps I'll add raw onion and honey to really wake up the mouth.

This is a great method to keep in mind no matter what you're cooking, baking, or combining ingredients in your kitchen. What can you do to cause unexpected flavors in your food that will make your guests wonder how you did it?

There are plenty of unconventional flavor combinations all over the world, and using them in contrast can make for the most exciting dishes.

When you are enjoying the fantastic flavor of the best strawberries that are local and in-season, time is of the essence. The season is short, and there's no recipe that will tell you exactly what your tastes require. Only you can decide that.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/food-and-beverage-articles/3-no-recipe-uses-for-the-seasons-best-strawberries-4805674.html

About the Author

Chef Todd Mohr has helped thousands worldwide discover the joy of cooking without recipes. His eye-opening FREE No Recipe Report reveals the 16 Cooking Rules You Should Never Follow (because they're ruining your food!).

Best Strawberry

Strawberry and Health

Beauty Strawberry

Strawberry - Not Just A Beautiful Fruit

Author: Kevin Pederson

What's the first thought that comes to your mind, when you think of strawberry - a mouth-watering dessert of strawberries mixed with fresh cream? To end an interesting evening on sweet note, this is just the right dessert. Strawberries serve more than just fulfilling the sweet tooth. It is packed with hordes of health benefits, making a nutritious fruit for mind and body.
Eat this succulent fruit in its raw form or serve it as jams, syrups, salads, smoothies, wine, juices, and more. Strawberries are full of vitamin C, potassium, sodium and iron as well as being low in calories. Not just delicious, a strawberry is also a great skincare additive, especially due to its mildly astringent properties. Strawberry flesh and juice is recommended mainly for oily skin to improve texture, minimize greasiness and encourage a healthy and more radiant complexion. The ellagic acids in strawberries appear to inhibit the growth of tumors (cancer cells). They are also a good source of salicylic acid that removes dead cells and clean pores.
Strawberry helps in soothing sunburned skin, skin blemishes as well as discolored teeth. An alternative to placing cucumber on the eyes, place a sliced strawberry to reduce the puffiness. They are known to fight heart disease and provide a number of vitamins and minerals that support overall human health. By adding strawberries to your diet, we build a healthy immune system. In addition to various nutrients and minerals, strawberries are an excellent source of vitamin K and manganese, as well as folic acid, riboflavin, vitamin B5, vitamin B6, copper, magnesium, and omega-3 fatty acids.
Packed with immense health benefits, strawberries when added to beauty recipes for skin exude magic. Try out these homemade recipes made with this luscious fruit as main ingredient.
Kiwi Cucumber Strawberry Facial Cleanser - Blend 5 to 6 strawberries, 1 kiwi, peeled and 1/2 cucumber to a smooth paste, not a runny mixture. If the mixture is slightly runny, add bit of oatmeal until the potion is of proper consistency. Apply to your face and neck area with gentle massage to exfoliate the skin. Let the paste settle on your skin for 10 minutes and then rinse well with warm water. Your skin will feel fresh and clean.
Strawberry Facemask - Combine 2 or 3 ripe strawberries with 2 tbsp of finely grounded oats and 1 drop of lemon essential oil to form a paste. Spread the paste on to the face and neck area with fingertips. Relax for 20 minutes. Rinse off with cool water followed by a toner and moisturizer. The pieces of strawberry seeds aid in the skin treatment process.
Antioxidant mask with Strawberry and Papaya starring - ½ papaya, 4 strawberries, 1 tbsp rolled oats, 1 tsp honey and 1 tsp fresh lemon juice. Grind the oats, blend papayas and strawberries until smooth and warm honey until it is flowing freely. Combine and mix well all the ingredients. Apply this mixture on the face and let it remain for 15 minutes. Rinse with warm water followed with moisturizer.
For beautiful and radiant skin - mash 1 or 2 strawberries mixing it with water to form a smooth paste. Apply the paste on your face, neck overnight. Rinse it in the morning.
Face Lifting Face Pack - 3 to 4 strawberries, 5-6 grapes, 1/2 pear, 1/2 apple and 1 ounce of orange juice. Before putting this paste on apply a coat of honey which is later on covered with this fruit mixture. Leave it for 30 minutes and then rinse it with lukewarm water. For the final rinse use vinegar to give your face, a perfect lift.
Strawberry Mask - 4 to 5 strawberries, 1 tbsp. milk and 1 tbsp. cornstarch. Mix all the three ingredients to make a paste to be applied on your face for 20 minutes. Rinse it first with warm water, then cold water. You can better this pack by using a mild astringent and then use a light moisturizer. You can use this pack for week.
Warning: The reader of this article should exercise all precautions while following instructions on the recipes from this article. Avoid using if you are allergic to something. The responsibility lies with the reader and not with the site or the writer.
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/strawberry-not-just-a-beautiful-fruit-20486.html
About the Author

Kevin Pederson is the webmaster of sites related to Hair and Skin Care . Read up on how strawberry can work like magic for hair and skin care.

Best for Choice Strawberry Plants

Strawberry Plants

Growing Choice Strawberry Plants

Author: Sharon Stajda

One of the best loved fruits in many parts of the world are strawberries. Indeed, people from all walks of life truly enjoy the venerable strawberry. In addition to being a delicious fruit, the strawberry also is a fruit that can be easy to cultivate and grown. These plants can be a wonderful addition to any gardening program.


If you are interested in possibly cultivating and raising strawberries, you need to pay attention to where you intend to plant your strawberries. In this regard, you likely should consider avoiding planting strawberry seeds or strawberry plants in an exposed, open area. Planting strawberries in an exposed, open area is not necessarily the best practice for these types of fruit plants.


In cultivating strawberry seeds and strawberry plants, contained planters can be the best choice if you truly want a healthy and vibrant crop. A significant amount of research has demonstrated that raising strawberry seeds and strawberry plants in a planter of boxed area is the best course to ensure healthy plants and a significant fruit crop throughout the season.


There are a number of reasons why a home-based gardener might want to consider cultivating his or her strawberry seeds (with an eye to rapid and healthy seed growth) within planters or growing boxes. One of the basic reasons is found in the fact that by using planters or boxes, a gardener attempting to cultivate strawberry seeds and strawberry plants through rapid and healthy seed growth will be better able to control the growing environment via the small space offered by planters. When you are dealing with open spaces, pests and weeds are significant problems. However, in the case of a planter or a box, the contained areas tend not to have such significant problems with pests and weeds.


In addition, it is far easier to properly provide plants nutrition when the strawberry seeds and strawberry plants are contained in a planter or a box. Regulating the nutrients in soil in an open space can be problematic because fertilizers and nutrients can easily leech off and away. No such problem occurs when a person is raising strawberry seeds and strawberry plants in planters or appropriate growing boxes.


Another benefit of utilizing planters or growing boxes in the growing of strawberry seeds and strawberry plants with an eye to healthy, vibrant growth is the basic portability of many such containers. Although controlling Mother Nature is not possible, you can control the exposure to Mother Nature that your plants experience. With planters and containers, you can more easily moves your strawberry plants around as weather dictates and requires.


Finally, by using planters and containers for the cultivation of strawberry seeds and strawberry plants, you can end up with an attractive addition to any outdoor landscaping scheme. Strawberry plants are lush and have attractive blooms. In addition, when the plants are laden with berries, they are lovely indeed. These plants add a wonderful accent to any patio or outdoor landscape when they are displayed in planters or growing boxes.
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/advice-articles/growing-choice-strawberry-plants-48033.html
About the Author

For more information, visit The Strawberry or Strawberries.

Tips for Strawberry Plant

Strawberry Plant

Growing Strawberries - Top 10 Tips

Author: Wayne Armstrong

If ever there was a simple fruit to grow for yourself it is the strawberry. What's more, the strawberry fruit is one of the most delicious in the garden and should definitely taste better than the ones you buy from the supermarket. strawberries you buy in the supermarket have usually travelled a long way. For example most of the strawberries found in UK supermarkets have come from places like the Canary Islands. Strawberries do not travel very well and their flavour gets sapped. What better excuse for growing them yourself.


There are three types of strawberry. The ones in the shops are generally from Summer bearing varieties. Summer bearing strawberries have a very short crop period of about 3 to 4 weeks in the Summer.
There is also a type of strawberry known as the perpetual bearing variety. This will bear usually three separate lots of fruit which will mean crops throughout the Summer.
There is also a particularly hardy type of strawberry known as the alpine strawberry.
Here are some top tips for growing strawberries of you very own:
1 - you will get the best flavour from your strawberries if they are grown in sunny positions
2 - strawberries like to have room to breathe so to speak. Give them at least a foot of depth in the soil and at least 8 inches between each row of plants.
3 - strawberries don't like to be waterlogged. They will rot easily in these conditions so ensure your soil drains well.
4 - one of the best places you can grow strawberries is in raised beds as you have more control over the environment.
5 - try and grow your strawberries in locations that benefit from long sunny days and cool nights
6 - one of the strawberry plants worst enemies is frost. The best crops will be found from plants planted in early September but if frost is going to be a problem then wait until mid April for Summer bearing strawberries. Perpetual bearing strawberries should be planted in mid April anyway
7 - avoid windy locations too as it makes it difficult for insects to pollinate the small flowers
8 - avoid growing strawberries on land that has previously been used to grow grass as wire worm will make short work of any strawberries before you get a chance to. You should also avoid growing strawberries in soil that has previously been used to grow egg plant, tomatoes, potatoes or peppers as this could cause a problem with verticillium wilt.
9 - we like the look of strawberries because of their bright colour and they look unusual because their seeds are on the outside of the fruit. This also means they are attractive to birds though, so avoid birds eating your strawberries by placing wire netting over them when the fruits start to form
10 - a great final tip is to surround the base of the plant with straw or plastic bin liners secured with stones when the fruits start to grow. As they get bigger the fruits will tend to get weighed down and will come to rest on the soil where they will start to rot. By the way if you use plastic bin liners or similar to avoid this situation, make sure you make holes in it to allow for drainage or your fruit will rot anyway.
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/home-and-family-articles/growing-strawberries-top-10-tips-1909051.html
About the Author

I hope you get a great crop of strawberries this year to enjoy with cream or ice cream and that my tops 10 tips for strawberry growing helped you out. For more great tips, come along and pay us a visit at the Garden Tips website