Since when are strawberries an ‘everyday essential’ in the depths of winter?

They taste awful out if our season. Sure they don't have much nutrition in them either.

I don't buy strawberries out of season and they certainly aren't 'essential'. However, my confession is that I buy blueberries - almost invariably imported. Wouldn't enjoy my porridge without them.

I eat berries throughout the winter because they are the best fruits for my diabetes. I prefer them when they are British but in the winter, I take what I can get and they taste better than frozen.

I feel that fruit is a very important part of a healthy diet. It provides fibre and vitamins and is a very good substitute for desserts and sweets especially for children.

Grantanow

Generally agree with the above. Small wild strawberries are full of flavour but one is lucky to find them these days.

They'd take over my garden if I let them!

Generally agree with the above. Small wild strawberries are full of flavour but one is lucky to find them these days.

keepcalmandcavachon

Me too Witzend, I look forward to the year's treasures- strawberries, asparagus and chestnuts etc in season, there's always something special to look forward to but essentials are day to day items.

I agree with you. When we lived in Suffolk I used to drive past a farm shop on my way to work. Nearly every day during the asparagus season I'd buy a bunch for our supper. We binged on asparagus for a few weeks and then no more, until the following year.

I buy frozen berries in the winter. I just have to remember to decant some into a bowl so they defrost ready to have with yoghurt and a sprinkling of granola. Delicious!

I eat blueberries and raspberries on a daily basis throughout the winter but only eat strawberries when the British ones hit the shops in the summer, the mass produced winter ones generally taste awful

if that is the fruit you like then why can't they be everyday fruit, strawberries are no longer seasonal as they are grown all round the world and you can now get them anytime.

Monica, re ‘rich vs poor Mediterranean diets’ you’ve reminded me of the early 70s, when civil engineer dh was first working on a bachelor basis, in a newly ‘opened up’ so to speak Oman. Facilities were extremely basic - his first car was reg. 603, i.e. the 603rd in the whole country.

The co. he worked for was from a Mediterranean country, ditto most of the workforce, and dh said that if e.g. a mason or carpenter wasn’t very good at his job, they’d put him in the bachelor mess (nearly all the men were on a bachelor basis at the time) and get him to cook!

So virtually all their meals consisted of ‘beans and oil’ with bread, which was apparently considered much like (albeit basic) home cooking and so acceptable to most. Fresh fruit and veg were then scarce and hard to come by.

Needless to say, dh and the odd fellow Brit weren’t too happy with this, I often think this is at least one reason why he proposed on a subsequent trip home - on a married basis he’d be given a (prefab) house and I’d be doing the cooking!*

(We had to be married, or I’d never have been given the ‘no objection’ certificate for my passport.)

*before anyone asks why he wouldn’t do it, he was working 12 hour days, 6 days a week - everything was wanted by the new Sultan ‘yesterday’.

Well, they do have roughage!! 😁

Grammaretto

I try to have fruit everyday. Does marmalade count? 😂

I suspect not, but if it does, then I’m claiming raspberry jam as one of my 5-a-day. 🤣

I try to have fruit everyday. Does marmalade count? 😂

But this research suggests that those with a simpler, more active lifestyle plus a Mediterranean diet enjoy better health than those who follow a more Western diet. An interesting piece of research shows that Japanese people have the greatest longevity of all when living in Japan- when Japanese people living in the USA were studied, they had the same health outcomes as other Americans ( i.e. more heart disease, obesity, cancers etc) suggesting that lifestyle and diet affects health more b than genetics factors. Anyway, this is off topic, I enjoy fruit all the year round.

An article in the New Scientist this week, while broadly supporting the mediterranean diet does suggest that it is more munaced then we are all led to believe.

A recent 5 year project in Itay with 20,000 participants found that the benefits of he Mediterranean diet only benefitted the well off and well-educated. The same benefits were not seen in low income families.

This suggests that it is not eating fruit and vegetables alone that counts, their health value may depend on what kind of fruit/veg they are and how they were grown.

It has also been suggested that the lifestyles of the people involved in the original research, played into the benefits of the mediterranean diet. They were rural people, who lived an active life as farmers and prepared their own food, often eaten in larger social groups.

So if you are well educated, with a good income, doing lots of walking and socialising a lto, the mediterranean diet will no doubt assist your long life and good health.

But if you fall into the lower social groups and are inactive and do not mix much, then it will do you less good.

JaneJudge

I don't eat fruit in winter hardly at all. Am I alone in this? I eat plenty of vegetables

You're not alone JaneJudge.
I don't eat fruit in the winter months except for a banana now and again.
I could eat seasonal summer fruit until they come out of my ears though.

The difference in taste of hothouse strawberries and seasonal outdoor strawberries is incredible.
We should start growing seasonal only fruit and vegetables.

JaneJudge

I don't eat fruit in winter hardly at all. Am I alone in this? I eat plenty of vegetables

I don't eat much fruit at all, an occasional apple. I do eat a great deal of veg, cooked and raw.

Witzend

aonk

Strawberries may not be an essential to many people but fruit is an essential for a healthy diet. It really doesn’t matter which fruit you eat or where it comes from. I’m puzzled by the somewhat sanctimonious attitude of some to strawberries when they may well eat bananas. These travel a long way all year round. Why pick on any particular fruit?

Is it really essential for health? We never had much fruit as children - because of cost it was pretty much rationed, we couldn’t just help ourselves. Anything like tangerines or grapes were an occasional treat, ditto strawberries even when in season.

OTOH fresh vegetables were on the menu daily, even if only carrots, cabbage and (in the early days) tinned peas.

All 3 siblings and I grew up perfectly healthy.

there was a radio 4 programme recently with Dr Mosely and a professor who is studying longevity and she had found that one of the important factors was a Mediterranean diet with added berries, nuts and seeds.. berries not normally part of MDiet and thus significant

I ate lots of fruit as a kid, even more than I do now. Yes I eat strawberries all year round they're essential to me on my breakfast granola with Greek yoghurt. They're not tasteless either or white they vary in flavour and are red throughout.

aonk

Strawberries may not be an essential to many people but fruit is an essential for a healthy diet. It really doesn’t matter which fruit you eat or where it comes from. I’m puzzled by the somewhat sanctimonious attitude of some to strawberries when they may well eat bananas. These travel a long way all year round. Why pick on any particular fruit?

Is it really essential for health? We never had much fruit as children - because of cost it was pretty much rationed, we couldn’t just help ourselves. Anything like tangerines or grapes were an occasional treat, ditto strawberries even when in season.

OTOH fresh vegetables were on the menu daily, even if only carrots, cabbage and (in the early days) tinned peas.

All 3 siblings and I grew up perfectly healthy.

I’m puzzled by the somewhat sanctimonious attitude of some to strawberries when they may well eat bananas.

aonk Sanctimonious? Holier-than-thou? Smug? Priggish? That'll be me.

No need to be puzzled. I try to eat seasonally and buy locally when I can. Sometimes that means we do without things for a few months, not really a huge sacrifice. I haven't suggested others should live as I do, we all make our own choices.

And I haven't eaten bananas for quite a few years.

I have strawberries with other berries every morning for breakfast

aonk

Strawberries may not be an essential to many people but fruit is an essential for a healthy diet. It really doesn’t matter which fruit you eat or where it comes from. I’m puzzled by the somewhat sanctimonious attitude of some to strawberries when they may well eat bananas. These travel a long way all year round. Why pick on any particular fruit?

At least bananas last a long time if they’re kept cool. I recently kept some outside - they were left over after a visit from the Gdcs, who get through so many.

Still fine after a week. We’re not all that partial but I made some bananas flambés, which are delish.

Strawberries OTOH go past their best very quickly, even if kept in the fridge - at least that’s my experience.