Eating strawberries could help protect your stomach from the effects of alcohol, European researchers have found.
The study revealed that a diet rich in the fruit can prevent alcohol from damaging the stomach lining.
The research, published in the open access journal Plos One, also found that strawberries could help in the prevention of certain gastric illnesses and contribute to improving the treatment of stomach ulcers.
The researchers fed ethanol to two groups of rats and found that those that had had eaten strawberry extract for 10 days prior to being given the alcohol suffered far less damage and ulcerations to their mucous membrane, or stomach lining.
Sare Tulipani, researcher at the University of Barcelona and co-author of the study said: "The positive effects of strawberries are not only linked to their antioxidant capacity and high content of phenolic compounds (anthocyans) but also to the fact that they activate the antioxidant defences and enzymes of the body."
Maurizio Battino, coordinator of the research group at the Marche Polytechnic University in Italy said: "In these cases, the consumption of strawberries during or after pathology could lessen stomach mucous membrane damage."
"This study was not conceived as a way of mitigating the effects of getting drunk but rather as a way of discovering molecules in the stomach membrane that protect against the damaging effects of differing agents."