What Are the Health Benefits of Cherries: A Review
Juicy and delicious cherries are a snack that almost everyone likes. What are the health benefits of cherries? Which varieties to choose, sweet or sour ones? Is it true that athletes need to drink cherry juice after their workout? Read on, and you will find the answers to all these and numerous other questions.
What Are the Health Benefits of Eating Cherries
Incredibly juicy and low in calories, cherries are one of the best possible choices for a snack. Here are the reasons why you should include them in your diet.
Full of Vitamins
Sour cherries (but not sweet ones) are a good source of vitamins A (important for eyesight) and C (essential for the immune system). Both varieties of fruit contain various B vitamins as well as iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, and potassium. What’s more, the glycemic index of the sour variety is low (only 22), which means that eating it does not cause a spike in your blood sugar.
All in all, although there are nutritionally richer fruits and berries (like, for instance, avocado), cherry is still a good choice if you want to get a boost in vitamins and minerals.
While fresh fruit is always the best possible choice, these dried cherries come in a convenient bag that is ideal for taking it anywhere you go.
- 113 g (4 oz)
- Montmorency tart
- Apple juice concentrate is used for sweetening
Contain Dietary Fiber
A cup of the sweet variety of this fruit contains about 3 grams of dietary fiber (for the sour variety this figure is about 2.5 grams). While dietary fiber cannot be broken down by your digestive system, it serves as food for good bacteria that live in your gut. Thus, foods that are rich in dietary fiber help you maintain gut health, which, among other things, is important for the immune system.
What’s more, among the benefits of dietary fiber is that it helps you feel full while carrying no calories. This can be important if you want to avoid weight gain or try to shed pounds.
Once again, there are foods (like blueberries) that contain more dietary fiber per cup, but cherry is by no means the last on the list.
Rich in Natural Antioxidants
Both varieties of cherries get their color from anthocyanins, natural pigments that belong to the flavonoid family. As anthocyanins are well-known for their antioxidant action, the consumption of cherries can help reduce oxidative stress.
A recent 2018 review confirms the antioxidant properties of this fruit. It demonstrates that daily consumption of cherries has decreased markers for oxidative stress in 8 of 10 scientific studies. On average, about 2 weeks of everyday consumption is required to get noticeable results.
May Help Reduce Muscle Soreness
Many athletes believe that Montmorency tart cherry juice (i.e., one that is extracted from one of the sour cultivars) drunk after a strenuous workout can help reduce muscle soreness. In a 2014 study athletes who daily used 480 mg of tart cherry extract for 10 days reported a marked reduction in muscle soreness. These findings were confirmed by a 2016 study (which also used a dose of 480 mg of extract per day). In a 2019 study the juice itself was used (30 ml of concentrated juice twice per day for 8 days); the recovery period in women athletes who used the juice was, on average, shorter.
While additional research is still required, it definitely won’t hurt if you drink some tart cherry juice after your training session.
Concentrated Tart Cherry Juice by Dynamic Health Laboratories
- 473 ml (16 fl oz)
- Certified organic
- No sweeteners or preservatives
Alternatively, you can use a supplement that is extracted from the juice:
- 500 mg per capsule, 90 capsules, 50:1 concentration
- Well-known brand
- Non-GMO
- What are the health benefits of black cherry juice extract? Research demonstrates that it can reduce muscle soreness.
May Help Heart Health
There are studies that demonstrate that the consumption of foods that are rich in polyphenols (including anthocyanins) may lower the risk of a heart attack. In a 2018 study that investigated the effects of polyphenols on heart health, it was shown that people who eat a polyphenols-rich diet have a decreased risk of heart disease.
Blood pressure is one of the most important factors in heart health. A 2018 review states that people who consume either cherry concentrate or cherry juice experience a short-term reduction in both systolic and diastolic blood pressure. In general, cherries in a diet helped blood pressure reduction in 5 of 7 previously-conducted studies.
May Improve the Quality of Your Sleep
While it might sound a bit surprising, a substantial improvement in sleep quality is often listed among the health benefits of cherries. This fruit contains melatonin, an important hormone that regulates the sleep-wake cycle.
In a 2018 study older adults who suffered from insomnia used concentrated tart cherry juice (1 cup before bed) for 2 weeks. On average, this allowed them to increase their sleep time by 84 minutes. According to the above-mentioned 2018 review, improved sleep was observed in 4 of 4 studies.
While additional research is still required, drinking tart cherry juice in the evening is a habit worth getting into.
May Improve the Symptoms of Gout
Gout is a painful condition that is caused by a buildup of uric acid. In numerous studies cherries were demonstrated to decrease the levels of uric acid in the body and alleviate the symptoms of gout.
Thus, in a 2003 study, women who ate 280 grams (10 ounces) of cherries per day experienced a noticeable decrease in uric acid levels in plasma. In 2012 there was a study that included 633 patients with gout. It revealed that people who include cherry in their diet enjoy the benefits of a 35% lower risk of gout attacks. What’s more, in the same study it was shown that people who combined cherry consumption with Allopurinol (a medication that decreases uric acid levels in the blood) had a 75% lower risk of acute gout attacks.
In total, all five studies into the anti-gout and anti-arthritic properties of cherry proved its effectiveness.
Can Be Used to Reduce Chronic Inflammation
This chronic condition is often a cause of diabetes, stroke, and even cancer. A recent 2022 meta-analysis demonstrates that regular consumption of tart cherry has a significant decreasing effect on inflammation markers in plasma. An earlier 2018 review shows that a reduction of inflammation markers was observed in 11 out of 16 previously-conducted studies.
What Health Benefits Do Cherries Have: Sour vs. Sweet Variety
While looking very much the same, sour (Prunus cerasus) and sweet (Prunus avium) cherries differ in their nutritional composition.
The main difference between the sour and sweet varieties is that the latter contains significantly (about 50%) more sugar than the former. What’s more, the sour variety is significantly richer in vitamins A and C compared to sweet cherries.
Sour cherries are also slightly richer than sweet ones in vitamins B1, B3, B9, calcium, and manganese. On the other hand, the sweet variety leads (although only slightly) in vitamins B5, B6, iron, phosphorus, and potassium as well as in dietary fiber content.
The sour cherry variety also contains between 45 and 109 mg of anthocyanins per 100 grams, while for the sweet variety the anthocyanins content varies between 30 and 79 mg per 100 grams. Thus, it is the sour version of the fruit that provides more natural antioxidants and is better suited for improving various health conditions.
Last but not least, while the glycemic index of the sour variety is only 22, some sweet cultivars have a glycemic index that is above 60. This means that while the sour variety is unlikely to cause any spikes in your blood sugar, people with diabetes need to consume the sweet one with caution.
All in all, if you want to keep sugars in your diet to a minimum and at the same time get as many vitamins, minerals, and antioxidant compounds as possible, decide on sour varieties. Then again, enjoying some sweet cherries now and then won’t overload your body with too many sugars.
What Are the Health Benefits of Black vs. Rainier Cherries
What are cultivars of cherries that are truly good for health? Which ones to choose, black or yellow? While there is no detailed examination of the chemical composition of all cherry cultivars, there are studies that strongly hint that the darker and the redder the fruit is, the higher its anthocyanins content gets. Thus, the dark-red cultivar ‘Fructbar von Michurin’ is significantly richer in anthocyanins than the bright-red ‘Montmorency.’ If it is the anthocyanins content you are interested in, then decide on cultivars that are extremely dark red in color.Now you know what are the health benefits of cherries. Keep in mind, though, that even the most healthy foods cannot be seen as a replacement for a balanced diet and regular physical exercise: do your best to take care of every aspect of your health.