Daily Strawberry Intake Boosts Insulin Sensitivity and Cardiometabolic Health, Helping Reverse Prediabetes: Study

The findings, published in The Journal of Nutrition, emphasize the potential of strawberries as a natural dietary approach to help manage prediabetic conditions and reduce the risk of progression to type 2 diabetes.

Prediabetes, a condition marked by elevated blood sugar levels that are not yet in the diabetic range, poses a growing public health challenge due to its strong association with type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. As the prevalence of prediabetes rises both in the United States and globally, identifying simple, food-based strategies to mitigate its risks is increasingly important. Polyphenol-rich berries have emerged as promising dietary components for improving cardiometabolic health. Previous studies suggest potential benefits, yet clinical trial results have been inconsistent and data specifically targeting individuals with prediabetes remain limited.

To address this gap, Arpita Basu, Department of Kinesiology and Nutrition Sciences, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, NV, and colleagues looked at how a realistic daily dose of strawberries (32g freeze-dried, equal to about 2.5 servings of fresh strawberries) affects blood sugar levels and heart-related health markers in adults with prediabetes. It was a 28-week randomized controlled crossover trial, where participants followed a strawberry and a no-strawberry phase, each lasting 12 weeks.

For this purpose, the researchers recruited 25 adults for each phase of the study. They collected anthropometric, clinical, dietary data, along with blood samples at multiple time points—baseline, 6, 12, 16 (washout), 22, and 28 weeks. To assess the effects of the strawberry intervention, they used a mixed-model ANOVA, which accounted for various factors such as treatment, time, order of randomization, age, sex, ethnicity, body mass index, calorie intake, physical activity, and baseline values for each outcome.

Key Findings:

• The strawberry intervention led to significant improvements in glycemic control, including reductions in serum insulin, insulin resistance, fasting glucose, and glycated hemoglobin levels compared to the control period.
• Adjusted mean differences were as follows: serum insulin decreased by 6.9 μIU/mL, insulin resistance by 2.3, fasting glucose by 8.9 mg/dL, and glycated hemoglobin by 0.2%.
• Total cholesterol levels also dropped significantly by 7.0 mg/dL during the strawberry period.
• Participants experienced a reduction in body weight during the strawberry phase.
• Markers of inflammation, including high-sensitivity C-reactive protein and interleukin-6, were also significantly lower following strawberry consumption.

“The 12-week randomized controlled crossover study is, to the best of our knowledge, the first to demonstrate that a dietary-feasible dose of strawberry supplementation—equivalent to 2.5 servings daily—can significantly improve glycemic and lipid profiles, as well as selected biomarkers of inflammation, in adults with obesity and prediabetes,” the researchers noted. They further added that these improvements in prediabetes status and overall cardiometabolic health remained significant even after adjusting for background dietary calorie intake, physical activity, and other covariates.

Concluding their findings, the researchers stated, “Given that strawberries are a widely consumed and accessible fruit, their inclusion in the daily diet may serve as a practical strategy for managing prediabetes and associated cardiometabolic risks.”

Reference:

Basu, A., Hooyman, A., Groven, S., Devillez, P., Scofield, R. H., Ebersole, J. L., Champion, A., & Izuora, K. (2025). Strawberries improve insulin resistance and related cardiometabolic markers in adults with prediabetes: A randomized controlled crossover trial. The Journal of Nutrition. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tjnut.2025.04.015