The Health Benefits of Cherries

Cherries are usually prized for their sweet and sour bursts of flavour. However, they also provide much disease-fighting potential, thanks to their unique package of strong antioxidant and anti-inflammatory phytonutrients.

What Cherries Can Do

How Much Should You Have?

Studies have found benefits from as little as a half cup of frozen cherries or two glasses of tart cherry juice consumed daily.

You can eat sweet or sour cherries. However, the tart varieties have higher levels of total phenolics (important for anti-inflammatory effects), although variability exists between varieties of cherries. Also, sweet cherries have 50 times less melatonin than tart cherries and dried tart cherries, and juice concentrate appears to have none.

Fresh or frozen cherries, juice or concentrate, and cherries in syrup (in cans or glass jars) can all be useful. It is important to note that during the canning process, approximately half of the phytonutrients (anthocyanins and phenolics) leach from the fruits into the syrup. So it’s worth drinking this tonic rather than pouring it down the drain.