'LIVE with Kelly and Mark' highlights UC strawberry study

University of Cincinnati research on how eating strawberries may reduce dementia risk was featured in a recent "LIVE with Kelly and Mark" segment on superfoods to eat in 2024.

Doctor and author William Li told hosts Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelo that while strawberries are known to have anti-inflammatory properties, they also can play a role in brain health. He cited a 2023 UC study that enrolled a total of 30 overweight patients between 50-65 years old with complaints of mild cognitive decline.

Over a period of 12 weeks, the participants were asked to abstain from berry fruit consumption of any kind except for a daily packet of supplement powder to be mixed with water and consumed with breakfast. Half of the participants received powders that contained the equivalent of one cup of whole strawberries (the standard serving size), while the other half received a placebo. 

Those in the strawberry powder group had diminished memory interference, which is consistent with an overall improvement in executive ability. 

“Reduced memory interference refers to less confusion of semantically related terms on a word-list learning test,” said lead study author Robert Krikorian, professor emeritus in the UC College of Medicine’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience. “This phenomenon generally is thought to reflect better executive control in terms of resisting intrusion of non-target words during the memory testing.”

The strawberry-treated participants also had a significant reduction of depressive symptoms, which Krikorian said can be understood as a result from “enhanced executive ability that would provide better emotional control and coping and perhaps better problem-solving.”

Watch the "LIVE with Kelly and Mark" segment.

Read more about the research.

Featured photo at top of strawberries. Photo/Anton Darius/Unsplash.