Strawberry, Apple & Red Onion Salad

Strawberries are the leading dietary source of fisetin, the flavonoid at the center of senolytic research, with apples, persimmons and onions adding smaller amounts. Fisetin has been studied mostly at the mechanistic level — one paper examined how it inhibits Akt/mTOR signaling (Anti-Cancer Agents in Medicinal Chemistry, 2013), and a later study looked at how it affects cholesterol excretion through the gut (Food Research International, 2024).

A 2026 review in Nutrients surveyed fisetin in the context of women's reproductive health, drawing on everything from laboratory studies to clinical work — a fair signal of how early and how scattered this field still is. Onions and apples also carry quercetin, a flavonoid with a longer cardiovascular literature, though much of that work is animal and laboratory research rather than human trials. Eat this because it is good food, not because a salad can do what a research dose does.

Why this works

Three of the foods that carry fisetin turn up here, all of them raw: strawberries as the bulk of the bowl, thin slices of apple for crunch, and red onion for sharpness. Onion and apple are also the classic everyday quercetin sources, so they earn their place twice. Baby spinach is the neutral base that lets the fruit lead. The feta and almonds bring salt, fat and protein, which is what keeps a fruit-heavy salad tasting like a meal rather than a dessert, and the mustard in the dressing holds the balsamic and oil together so you need less of both.

Getting the most from it

Buy strawberries in season and use them within a day or two — they turn soft fast, and the ones that smell like strawberries in the shop are the ones worth buying. Soak the sliced onion in cold water for five minutes to take the harshness off, and dress the salad at the table so the spinach does not wilt. And keep expectations honest: senolytic research uses fisetin at doses far beyond a bowl of berries, so eat this for the food.

The research behind this recipe

Primary sources for the claims above. Effects reported in these papers describe the compound or the dietary pattern studied — not this specific dish.

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