It’s time to celebrate!!! It’s Cherry season, my favourite time of year. Those gorgeous red globes of sweetness have such great health benefits in such a small fruit and they taste heavenly. Yum… Besides tasting great they are great for you; in fact, they could be called a “Super Fruit”. Let’s look at their benefits.
Health Benefits of Cherries
From a health standpoint of view, getting your antioxidants, vitamins and minerals from real food is more beneficial than getting them from a vitamin tablet that you can get at the health food store. Fruits work synergistically in providing natural sugars, vitamins and fiber. It is recommended that we eat 2 to 4 servings of fruits per day.
A single serving of cherries would include:
- ½ cup of dried cherries, or
- 1 cup of frozen cherries, or
- 1 cup juice, or
- 1 ounce of juice concentrate.
Cherries are said to have among the highest levels of disease-fighting antioxidants when compared to other fruits. They also contain important nutrients such as Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Thiamin (B1), Riboflavin (B2) niacin, calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, potassium, iron, beta carotene, folate and fiber.
Cherries also contain melatonin. This helps the body’s natural sleep cycles, prevents memory loss, and aids with jet lag. Cherries possess anti-inflammatory and anti-aging properties.
Cherry Red
Cherries are a fleshy stone fruit and are usually red in color. This red color is what lets us know that they are high in antioxidants called anthocyanins. (Anthocyanins provide the distinctive red color.) With 150 different flavonoids found in plants, anthocyanins seem to have the greatest antioxidant capacity. Cherries are one of the richest sources of anthocyanins.
The rich, red pigments that give cherries their beautiful color are a type of phytonutrients known as flavonoids. Flavonoids have been shown to have a variety of health benefits.
Some of the health benefits of cherries are:
- they help ease the pain of arthritis and gout
- they reduce risk factors for heart disease
- they reduce risk factors for diabetes.
Cherry enriched diets lower total body weight, body fat (especially abdominal fat), inflammation and cholesterol).
Stock Up on Cherries
Cherry season is short (July and August), so if you go to the farmer’s market and take advantage of the season, you can be prepared for an entire year of cherry delights. I usually pit and freeze cherries (to be used in smoothies or sauces) and can them. I also make cherry jam.
Cherries are not just delicious, they are very good for your health. So raise your glass and say: “Cheers to cherries!”
Sylvea Stevens 
I have always LOVED cherries, too! I have fond memories of getting baskets from the market, and my mother pitting them for hours to make cherry strudel so heavily laden with the fruit and only paper thin layers of the pastry to hold it together. And cherry soup. We practically lived on cherries all summer. I don’t recall them ever getting to the point of freezing or canning! Bing cherries are forever my favourite!