The Cherry on Top: 5 Amazing Health Benefits of Cherries

Introduction

If we talk about Cherry, in food sciences, the literature quoted a range of bioactive components in this fruit including anthocyanins, hydroxycinnamates and flavonoids. Thus, it is not surprising that eating cherries can improve health. Numerous investigations conducted on both humans and animals have suggested that eating cherries may reduce the risk of developing a number of chronic illnesses, including diabetes, cancer, heart disease, and arthritis.

Health Benefits

Anti-cancerous Activity

Sweet cherries include a number of cancer-preventive ingredients, including fiber, ascorbic acid, and pigments (carotenoids and anthocyanins). Anthocyanins, particularly cyanidin, are essential for lowering the risk of cancer. Numerous research have examined the anthocyanin-containing cherries’ anticancer properties. The administration of (1) a diet containing cherry, (2) cyanidin, (3) anthocyanins, (4) diet for control, or (5) diet for control with incorporated sulindac (an agent having anti-inflammatory property) indicates that any of the three test diets showed less volume of cecal tumors when fed to mice, but not tumors concerned with colon, than sulindac supplemented or control mice, suggesting that the site-specific inhibition of cecal tumors is mainly due to the bioactivity of cyanidin.

Similar studies have delineated that cyanid-glucosides have cancer-protective effects employing apoptotic effects and cancer cell lines through G2/M growth cycle arrest. Contemplated the positive effect of cyanidin and cyanidin-3-O-ß-D-glucoside on impediment of xanthine oxidase activity, DNA cleavage and enhancement in free radical scavenging activity relying on dose. When exposed to cherry anthocyanins, cancer cell lines were used to study the apoptosis of mutant cells and the detainment of cell cycle. Additionally, components of cherries have demonstrated strong inhibitory effects on the epidermal growth factor receptor; this may be because cyanidin has growth detention properties.

Cyanidin also increases cellular differentiation, which reduces the likelihood of malignant transformation. In a mouse colorectal cancer model, the volume of cecal tumors was reduced by the use of sour cherries containing anthocyanin-rich extract, suggesting that site-specific inhibition of cecal tumors was only because of the presence of cyanidin. The anti-inflammatory activities of cherry-based beverage were reported to abate the risk of chronic diseases, especially in aged populations.

Cardiovascular Diseases

Consumption of sweet or sour cherries has been shown to pose cardioprotective effects. It has been demonstrated that cyclidin-3-glucoside reduces oxidative stress by boosting nitric oxide production. The occurrences of heart attacks and rapid and irregular heart rhythms were shown to be decreased in rats whose hearts had been subjected to ischemia injury and then extracts of tart cherry at multiple doses. Cholesterol gets removed from macrophages and the corresponding foam cells upon treatment with cyanidin-3-0-ß-glucoside.

In a randomized, double-blind crossover study involving 12 healthy males, increase in plasma vanillic and protocatechuic acids was observed after intake of ‘Montmo-rency’ tart cherry juice concentrates for 1 hour. Higher amounts of these acids in plasma led to an increase in vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) migration in vitro, which may help with blood vessel remodeling. Moreover, lowering of systolic blood pressure was also reported due to the use of single dose of cherry concentrate with no effect on cognitive functions.

Antidiabetic Activity

Supplementation of healthy subjects with cherries or their products shows no effect on fasting or random blood glucose level or fasting insulin. Recently, the diabetes control has received a considerable interest due to the role played by glycemic index (GI). Given that sweet cherries have an approximate GI of 22, that is less than apricots, it has been demonstrated that they may be a better fruit for those who have diabetes (GI of 57), blueberries (GI of 40), grapes (GI of 46), peaches (GI of 42), or plums (GI of 39).

The lower glycemic response of cherries is attributed to their bioactive compounds and dietary fiber (Kelley et al. 2006; Garrido et al. 2013). Intake of sweet and tart cherry extracts prevented alloxan-induced diabetes in rats and mice. In rats and mice, high-fat diets supplemented by cherry extract or pure anthocyanins decreased circulation insulin, glucose, and liver triglycerides. The usage of a tart cherry-enriched diet decreased a number of risk variables in Dahl rats, who were at risk for type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome.

On the other hand, C57BL/6 mice developed overweight and insulin resistance when anthocyanin extract from sweet cherries were added to a high-fat diet. The a-glucosidase enzyme that carries out the process of sugar absorption is inhibited by several cultivars of sweet cherries or their aqueous extracts. Likewise, chlorogenic acid, one of the main polyphenols found in tart cherry juice, inhibits a-glucosidase and dipeptidyl peptidase-4 enzymes.

Arthritis

Gout, the most prevalent kind of arthritis, is typified by recurrent bouts of joint pain, swelling, and redness. Gout is caused by the bloodstream’s production of uric acid and subsequent crystallization in joints. For decades, cherries have been quietly used to soothe the symptoms of arthritis and gout sufferers, who routinely consume the fruit. In fact, the idea that cherries could help someone with gout and arthritis dates back to the 1950s. Preliminary studies have revealed that the gout and pain related to arthritis were relieved due to the daily consumption of cherries (approximately 4.5 cups of cherries).

Intake of fresh and canned cherries resulted in attainment of normal uric acid level in the plasma and improved joint movements in toes and fingers in some patients. Consumption of as much as 45 sweet cherries has been reported to reduce the plasma markers of oxidative stress and inflammation. Furthermore, only five hours after cherry ingestion did the researchers find a substantial drop in the plasma uric acid levels. Intake of tart cherry juice for a period of 4 weeks also showed significant reduction of plasma uric acid concentration in obese subjects. But even after six weeks, osteoarthritis sufferers showed no improvement.

Read More About Knee Pain (Arthritis)

Anti-inflammatory Activity

The bioactive components of cherry pose anti-inflammatory effect via inhibition of the cyclooxygenase (COX) inflammatory enzymes. Among the cherry phenolic compounds, cyanidin and malvidin are the most potent for the inhibition of COX-1 and COX-2 activity. Consumption of cherry has been shown to lower down the inflammation in arthritic animal models via decreased production of TNFa. Intake of sweet cherry has been shown to lower down plasma IL-18 and ferritin while increasing the IL-1R antagonist in human beings.. Consumption of tart cherry has also been shown to lower down IL-6, IL-8, and TNFa in human plasma normally produced after a heavy exercise.

One comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *