They also contain 10 times as much in the way of antioxidants than do tomatoes. Antioxidants neutralize free radicals that damage cells and cause disease.
One disadvantage is that raspberries are rather expensive and available only in small quantities.
Writing in the magazine Bio-Factors, the scientists called for new varieties to be developed to increase yield and for an improvement in taste, as not everyone likes the flavor of raspberry.
Underage boozing
Australian health experts issued a warning yesterday against the fad of milk-based alcoholic drinks, saying new research found many teenagers cannot tell the difference between the cocktails and a milkshake.
With the number of milk-based alcohol drinks in the market growing, including one mix of chocolate milk and vodka marketed under the name Mudshake, Australia's National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre (NDARC) urged manufacturers to rethink their products.
The centre's Jan Copeland, who wrote the report released yesterday, said it was important that alcoholic drinks actually taste like alcohol to discourage under-age drinking.
"Young humans are programmed to like sweet and milky food -- like breast milk for example. The reason they don't take to alcohol is because of the slightly bitter, burning sensation and these drinks take away that barrier," she said.
The survey of youths' responses to the new drinks, which the centre said was the first of its kind worldwide, found that milk-based alcoholic beverages were "extremely palatable" to adolescents as young as 12.
Copeland said some mixtures were so good at masking the taste that many young drinkers could not even tell they contained alcohol.
"We were particularly concerned with the under-16s -- they rated the Vodka Mudshake the same as chocolate milk," she said.
The NDARC stopped short of calling for a ban on the drinks -- often referred to as "alcopops" -- but urged manufacturers to make their products more alcoholic-tasting and to stop targeting young people in their marketing.
"I think the manufacturers should look at their formulations now and look to change them to make them more alcoholic-tasting so that then they're not likely to be inadvertently taken up by adolescents," Copeland told ABC Radio.
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