Strawberries
The effect sits in the hours after you eat them, not in your fasting bloods. That is more honest than what is usually claimed.
How to use it
Raw, as fruit. Through yoghurt, through a salad with pepper over the top.
The best version
Small, deep red through to the middle, with the hull still firmly on. Smell them: a strawberry with no smell has no taste either.
How to prepare it
Wash them with the hull still on, or the fruit fills with water. Keep them out of the fridge if you are eating them today, because cold costs flavour.
What it does
In 34 adults with raised cholesterol, strawberries were given daily for four weeks. LDL did not change, but in the hours after eating them the working of the vessel wall improved by 1.5 percent and systolic pressure fell by 3.1 mmHg.
Watch out
Cholesterol, triglycerides, glucose, insulin and inflammatory markers all stayed where they were. Eating strawberries to change your blood results is eating them for the wrong reason.