Eating strawberries can significantly lower levels of bad cholesterol and triglycerides, according to a study conducted by Italian and Spanish scientists.

Researchers from the Università Politecnica delle Marche in Italy, together with colleagues from the Universities of Salamanca in Granada and Seville, Spain, added about a pound of strawberries to the daily diets of 23 healthy volunteers over a month.

Researchers took blood samples before and after this period to compare data.

The results, which are published in the Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry, show that the total amount of cholesterol, the levels of low-density lipoproteins (LDL or bad cholesterol), and the quantity of triglycerides fell to 8.78 percent, 13.72 percent, and 20.8 percent, respectively.

The high-density lipoprotein (HDL or good cholesterol) remained unchanged.

Eating strawberries also improved other parameters such as the general plasma lipid profile, antioxidant biomarkers (such as vitamin C or oxygen radical absorbance capacity), antihemolytic defenses, and platelet function.

Parameters returned to their initial values 15 days after abandoning “treatment” with strawberries.