Why women should eat a punnet of strawberries a day

Eating just 15 strawberries a day protected mice from aggressive breast cancer in a new medical study.

Scientists used an extract from the Alba strawberry to feed female mice with breast cancer tumours, as well as lab-grown cancer cells.

In total, the strawberries made up 15 percent of the mice's diet. That is just shy of the recommended daily amount of fruit we should eat each day, and would be equivalent to a punnet of strawberries, reported the Daily Mail.

However, the researchers stressed that results from animal tests do not necessarily mean the same effects will be seen in humans.

After five weeks on a strawberry-boosted diet, the mice showed no sign of progressing cancer spread - and in many, their tumours even shrank.

Dr Maurizio Battino, from the Marche Polytechnic University in Italy, said: "We saw a significant reduction in the weight and volume of the tumour."

"These results are without a doubt valid for understanding potential effects of strawberries on breast cancer and the molecular mechanisms involved, but they must be complemented with clinical and epidemiological studies to verify whether humans experience the same positive effects as we have observed in mice."

The study appears in the latest edition of the journal Scientific Reports.

• This article was first published on nzherald.co.nz and is republished here with permission.