Top 5 Health Benefits of Cherries

All of people who wonder what the health benefits of cherries might be that’s exactly what we’re going to be talking about today. Cherries have many health benefits and also tastes really good so it’s win-win situation for a lot of people who want to get healthy and also have something sweet to eat at the same time.

More than three million pounds of cherries are grown each year and have a short shelf life after they are harvested and are easily destroyed by disease. So getting them from the Harvest to the stores is usually of the minor process but still one that’s important as the freshest cherries are the only one to make it to your produce aisle.

Whether you might know it or not peaches, plums, almonds and apricots are all in the same family of fruit as cherries. And they are mostly used and dessert foods more than they are eating singularly because other easy conversion into desert sweeteners.

Cherries have been known to have many antioxidant properties which as we know antioxidants are really good for your health and offer a lot of positive benefits for you in the long term since that’s what we’re all really looking for.

#1. Cherries are known to help keep away cancer

Some of the health benefits include compounds that prevent cancer. Fiber, carotenoids anthocyanins and vitamin C are very important nutrients and compounds that help keep cancer away according to the Foundation of National Cherry Growers. They stated :

“The potential role of sweet cherries in cancer prevention lies mostly in the anthocyanin content, especially in cyanidin. Sweet cherries are a good source of cyanidins, which appear to act as an antioxidant and in this role may reduce cancer risk…

A study… using human cancer cell lines demonstrated cell cycle arrest and apoptosis of mutated cells exposed to cherry anthocyanins…

Further research suggests that the growth arrest characteristics of cyanidin are likely, at least in part, to be a result of significant inhibitory effects of these cherry components on epidermal growth factor receptors…

Finally, there is compelling evidence from basic science that cyanidin may also promote cellular differentiation and thus reduce the risk for healthy cells to transform to cancer.”

#2. Cherries can naturally boost your melatonin levels

Did you also know that cherries have naturally occurring melatonin in them as well? Yes melatonin it’s a powerful antioxidant that seeks out free radicals and helps destroy them and also helps lower inflammation and eases oxidative stress.

You can naturally increase your melatonin levels by consuming tart cherry juice which helps with your total sleep time and also your quality of sleep. Drinking the cherry juice 30 minutes before your last meal of the day and almost right after waking naturally boosts your melatonin level as well.

#3. Cherries help you burn stubborn belly fat and helps you lose weight

We know a lot of health conscious readers are definitely going to be glad about this next section. As tart cherry juice has been shown in animal studies that animals fed the powder form of tart cherries along with a high-fat diet developed less body fat and also developed less body weight compared to the animals that were not fed the diet.

Adding this to your already existing or newly starting diet lineup can be the little edge that you need to push your weight loss goals over the top. Cherries, who knew right?

#4. Cherries help with post exercises pain and inflammation

Feeling the burn from post-exercise pain? Well tart cherry juice or powder is also here to help with that. Studies have been shown that people who trained regularly or athletes who use tart cherry juice before running long distances have less pain than the people who did not use tart cherry juice. It’s speculated that the properties of tart cherries may protect against muscle damage and post-exercise pain during heavy duty exercises due to the antioxidants and other properties of this amazing fruit.

#5. Want to look younger? Cherries slow down the skins aging process

Want to look young and keep looking young well cherries also help you out in that department. Cherries are around the top of the list of fruits with the highest antioxidant levels. By removing the free radicals which unfortunately makes us look old we get many years of healthy looking skin back by drinking cherry juice or even just eating them. Even one glass a day slows down the aging process according to scientists from Michigan State University.

Those are just some of the benefits of cherries whether it be tart cherries or sweet cherries. The benefits are really hard to deny to not add this fruit into your daily diet weather be in pill form powder form or juice form.

Just try not to go overboard with cherries as there is still such a thing as fructose which is sugar and as they say too much of good thing can also be bad for you. Yes the fructose (natural sugar) from the cherries does contain a good amount of sugar and if not keeping track can throw off a whole diet trying to get these amazing benefits while also blowing your caloric intake out of the water.