Tart Cherries Are Good For Your Heart
Researchers at the University of Michigan found that animals that received powdered tart cherries as part of their diet had lower cholesterol, lower blood sugar, less fat storage in the liver, lower oxidative stress and increased production of a molecule that helps the body handle fat and sugar, compared to animals that didn’t receive the cherries as part of a similar diet.
All these measures can be part of “metabolic syndrome,” a condition that can lead to diabetes and heart disease. The cherries made up about 1 percent of the animals’ diets. The results were given in an oral presentation at the Experimental Biology 2007 meeting in Washington, D.C.
Researchers will next study animals with Type 2 diabetes to see if tart cherries affect fat storage in muscles and fat tissue, and how they affect HDL and LDL cholesterol.
The best cherries for heart protection seem to be the tart kind called Montmorency. They are used in pies and jams, as well as juice. They are different from the sweet Bing cherries that are often eaten raw, and have a higher concentration of antioxidants than Bing cherries.
