Fruits with surprising health perks

It's peak season for filling your farmers market basket with your favorite fruits. And research finds those ripe gems are packed with powerful compounds that can help your heart, protect your vision and so much more.

- ANN GREEN

Strawberries help your heart

Enjoying strawberries daily may help dial down the heart-harming effects of your favorite high-fat, high-carb comfort foods, suggests UC Davis research—especially if you eat them just before a meal. When overweight people in the study enjoyed the equivalent of 100 grams of strawberries (that's around 3/4 cup of sliced berries) every day for six weeks before tucking into fatand carb-heavy fare, they experienced better blood clot breakdown.

That's something the researchers suspect may help lower the risk of heart disease and stroke. Credit goes to strawberries' polyphenols and antioxidants, which help reduce inflammation and prevent blood from becoming too sticky.

Peaches protect your vision