Tart Cherries VS Other Leading Fruit

Consuming fruits and vegetables on a regular basis is linked with a reduced risk of developing chronic diseases. Although many fruits provide the essential nutrients required of a healthy, balanced diet; tart cherries go above and beyond the call of duty to deliver them. Therefore, tart cherries provide more health benefits than most other fruits do.

You can find a wide variety of bio-active compounds in tart cherries. Regular consumption of them reduces your risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer disease, cataracts, and functional deterioration (due to old age). One of these bio-active compounds is specifically notorious for their battle against chronic diseases. This refers to antioxidants.

Antioxidants are essential to balancing out the amount of oxidants in your body. Their primary perk is that they reduce your risk of oxidative stress. This in turn reduces your risk of developing cancer or cardiovascular disease. Therefore, antioxidants are one of the most well known health benefits contained in fruit.

Phenolic Acids are very powerful antioxidants. A fruit that contains a type of phenolic acids has an edge on other fruits because of the increased health benefit it provides. Therefore, fruits such as tart cherries, acai, blueberries, noni, and pomegranate all are at the top of the game when it comes to antioxidants. They beat out all of the other fruits and vegetables in this department. However, Tart cherries contain more varieties of phenolic acids than the Acai, blueberry, noni, and pomegranate do. That is why the tart cherry stands alone at the top for nutritional antioxidant content.

In addition to antioxidants, tart cherries contain anthocyanins, flavanols, flavonols, hormones, vitamins and minerals, and terpenes. They also have a greater variety of these bio-active compounds than the other four fruits (mentioned previously) have.

Generally speaking, tart cherries are not as popular as some other fruits. While a lot of nutritional information is known about most fruits and vegetables, there is still more information that can be uncovered. As the availability of more information increases, we find that the popularity of the tart cherry rises along with it. A greater amount of research is finding that the nutritional benefit of tart cherries surpasses that of most other fruits.

Despite all of the great nutritional value a tart cherry possesses, they still are not as popular as many other fruits. The name could have something to do with it as the sweet cherry usually gets the vote when consumers browse fruit. Secondly, tart cherries are usually not available fresh in stores. You have to find them at your local farmers market to get them fresh. Otherwise, they usually come canned or in a jam when simply shopping at your local grocery store. In regards to convenience, tart cherries are not easy to come by unless you are specifically looking for them to put in a salad or dessert. In that case, you are not benefitting from them the way you could be if you were eating them fresh and whole.

Look for the tart cherry the next time you shop. You’ll be surprised at all it has to offer in regards to your health. If your local grocery store does not have them fresh and you aren’t planning on cooking up a dessert just to try them, look for tart cherries in the form of a drink. Just make sure the tart cherry juice is not from concentrate and has no preservatives. Otherwise, you aren’t experiencing the real benefits of tart cherries. Instead you’ll just be getting a cherry juice that tastes good with little nutritional value.