Strawberry powder and memory in middle-aged adults
What it found
In a 12-week trial in overweight middle-aged people, daily strawberry powder reduced memory interference and depressive symptoms, but did not change metabolic measures.
What they found
Studies in people
Memory interference
The strawberry group made fewer intrusion errors on a word list learning task, meaning they were better at keeping out irrelevant information during learning and recall.
Depressive symptoms
The strawberry group reported lower levels of depressive symptoms compared with the placebo group.
Other cognitive domains
There was no improvement in executive ability, lexical access, verbal memory, or visual-spatial memory.
Metabolic measures
There was no effect on fasting glucose, fasting insulin, insulin resistance, glycated hemoglobin, or the triglyceride to HDL ratio.
Weight and waist
Body weight and waist circumference did not change, though there was a weak trend toward lower BMI in the strawberry group.
Other findings
Background diet
Both groups kept to the prescribed avoidance of berry products outside the study, and there was no difference between groups in anthocyanin intake from other foods.
What the authors conclude
“The findings support the notion that strawberry supplementation has a role in dementia risk reduction when introduced in midlife.”
Also in their conclusions
- They say the findings support the idea that strawberry supplementation has a role in dementia risk reduction when introduced in midlife.
- They suggest that anti-inflammatory actions of anthocyanins were a primary mechanistic factor.
- They call for further investigation with longer intervention periods, larger samples, and different dosing regimens.
How it was done
The authors wanted to see if strawberry supplementation could help lower dementia risk when started in midlife, before symptoms appear.
They enrolled 34 overweight middle-aged men and women with insulin resistance and mild cognitive complaints, giving 17 people daily strawberry powder and 17 a placebo for 12 weeks. The strawberry powder provided 36.8 mg anthocyanins per day, equal to about one cup of fresh strawberries.
What it can’t tell you
- This was a small pilot trial with only 30 people who completed it, so the results may not apply to everyone.
- The study lasted 12 weeks, so it cannot show whether these effects last longer or prevent dementia later in life.
- The strawberry group had no men, so the findings may not apply to men.
Who paid
- Funding
- Funded by California Strawberry Commission (from the PubMed record).
- Conflicts
- The authors report no conflict of interest. This research was approved by the University of Cincinnati Medical Institutional Review Board and was performed in accordance with ethical standards and protections against harm to participants.
- Authors work at
- University of Cincinnati Academic Health Center, USA; Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, USA
The paper
- Title
- Early Intervention in Cognitive Aging with Strawberry Supplementation
- Type
- Study
- Evidence
- Studies in people
- Summarised from
- Full text
- Cite
- Krikorian R, Shidler MD, Summer SS (2023). Early Intervention in Cognitive Aging with Strawberry Supplementation. Nutrients. doi:10.3390/nu15204431Free full textPubMed 37892506DOI
Summary written 26 Sep 2026. Check it against the paper before it changes what you eat. How we summarise papers · Report an error