Juiced cherries offer a ton of health benefits, making them a fantastic substitute for sugary drinks if you’re looking to boost your health. They are packed with antioxidants and have anti-inflammatory properties, making them a smart drink choice.
There are two main types of cherries: sweet cherries (Prunus avium) and sour cherries (Prunus cerasus), both belonging to the Rosaceae family. The word “cherry” comes from the Latin word “cerasum,” named after a region in Turkey from where they were first taken to Europe. Cherries have been grown since ancient times in Europe, western Asia, and parts of North Africa.
Nutritional Value of Juiced Cherries
Juiced cherries come loaded with nutrients like anthocyanins, flavonoids, hydroxycinnamates, potassium, vitamin C, carotenoids, and melatonin.
Health Benefits of Juiced Cherries
Juiced cherries serve as a medicinal food today, due to their high antioxidant levels, low glycemic impact, and anti-inflammatory effects. These benefits can reduce the risk of chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, and cancer.
The phenolic content in juiced cherries helps protect brain cells, combat oxidative stress, and prevent age-related cognitive decline. This can lead to clearer skin and slow down signs of aging. An Australian study revealed that older adults with mild to moderate dementia noticed improvements in memory and verbal fluency after drinking cherry juice for 12 weeks. Their systolic blood pressure decreased significantly, while diastolic pressure saw a smaller reduction.
Cardiovascular Health
The flavonoid quercetin in cherries acts as a powerful anti-inflammatory and antioxidant, offering protection against cardiovascular diseases (CVD). It relaxes blood vessels, reduces inflammation in pathways, and helps prevent blood clots.
Consuming juiced cherries can lessen the occurrence of irregular heartbeats, lower vascular inflammation, and reduce the risk factors for atherosclerosis.
Sleep and Melatonin
Sour cherries are high in melatonin, a hormone that supports healthy sleep by regulating the body’s internal clock and easing jet lag. Drinking juiced cherries helped study participants sleep longer and better, which may improve metabolic health due to melatonin’s anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties.
Cancer Prevention
Cherries are rich in cancer-fighting antioxidants like lutein, carotenes, and anthocyanidins. These antioxidants have been shown to cause cell death in cancerous cells and halt their growth in studies.
Managing Diabetes
With their low glycemic index, cherries’ antioxidants and anti-inflammatory actions can help lower insulin resistance and improve glucose tolerance. They have also shown to decrease triglyceride production and enhance cholesterol levels. Tart cherries specifically have been related to improved fat and glucose metabolism, aiding weight loss.
Reducing Inflammation
Chronic mild inflammation can lead to diseases such as cancer, CVD, obesity, arthritis, and cognitive issues. Cherries have been shown to alter the body’s inflammatory processes. They block inflammatory pathways more effectively than green tea, and even outperform some common medications like aspirin in their anti-inflammatory effects.
Arthritis Relief
Research shows that consuming 2.5 cups of sweet cherries per day can lower the inflammatory marker hsCRP by up to 25%, easing pain in arthritis sufferers. Drinking two glasses of tart cherry juice daily also offers significant pain relief for arthritis.
Gout Management
Gout, a type of arthritis, is characterized by high uric acid levels in the blood. Juiced cherries can lower uric acid levels just five hours after consumption in healthy people. For those suffering from repeated gout attacks, consuming cherries over two days can decrease the risk by 35%. When combined with the medication allopurinol, the attack risk plummets by 75%.
