Mmmm.....Strawberries

I once tried strawberries as a kid and decided that I didn't like them. I remember thinking they were like grapefruit, where they were too sour to eat without adding sugar, at which point I was like, "what's the point? I don't eat fruit for fun. I eat it to be healthy. So if I have to add sugar, I'll just have chocolate." (I still kind of feel that way about grapefruit.) But now that I'm being all open minded, and since strawberries are in season, I decided to give them another try.

Oh....my....gosh. I have been depriving myself of this heavenly gift of nature for 20 years. Now, it's like my new fruit crack. In the last week-and-a-half I have been through three 16 oz. crates and one 32 oz. crate all by my lonesome, PLUS some strawberries that I had last night at our friends' house.

After experiencing my first crate of strawberries, it occurred to me that strawberries are supposed to bring out the flavor in some kind of wine or champagne, aren't they? So when I went to stock up on my next round of berries, I bought a bottle of white zin to go with.

Ew.

I should have googled first. I must have just gotten the wrong kind of wine. It was kind of like when you brush your teeth and then have a grape. Not complimentary at all. Well, as it turns out, that whole champagne/strawberries thing is actually nothing but a mind game:

Food & Wine Pairing: Strawberries & Champagne -- powered by ExpertVillage.com

(Sorry about the video not really fitting the blog right. And sorry that she's kind of creepy.)

I was really happy to have found this advice, though, because I only really like a couple of wines, and muscato happens to be my very favorite type of wine!!! (Except "Dave." Kickapoo Creek Winery in Peoria, IL. Go. Buy. Drink.)

Ingesting all of these strawberries got me to thinking...what are the health benefits of strawberries? Can a person have too much?

Here's what the internets has to say: not really. Basically, yes, they are loaded with vitamin C, and too much of that will give you runnipoo. But when that happens you'll know that it's time to stop eating them. In fact, strawberries carry with them all kinds of fabulous health benefits:

According to www.whfoods.com, "strawberries topped a list of eight foods most linked to lower rates of cancer deaths among a group of over 1,000 elderly people. Those eating the most strawberries were three times less likely to develop cancer compared to those eating few or no strawberries." Also, because they're so high in vitamin C, strawberries can be a great tool to prevent rhumatoid arthritis.

Here's the catch...strawberries made the top twelve list of foods on which pesticides are most frequently found. Doh! So if you really want to rid yourself of any gluttony guilt, buy organic. AND strawberries can limit your body's ability to absorb calcium a teeny tiny bit. But, according to whfods, the health benefits far outweigh this drawback.

So, off I go to finish the crate of strawberries in the fridge! Maybe today my husband and I can visit an orchard to get some super fresh ones. I've only had store bought ones, and I hear orchard ones are SOOOO much better.

Happy Strawberry Season, everyone!