Sour cherries are also known as Tart cherries. Sour cherries are bright red in color when harvested. But when dried and frozen, it retains that bold color. Sour cherries are generally consumed frozen, dried or juiced rather than fresh like other sweet cherries. According to many research, there are a lot of potential benefits in sour cherries. Here we will know about 7 health benefits of sour cherries. But at first, let’s know what sour cherry is.
In This Article:
- What is Sour Cherry?
- 7 Amazing Health Benefits of Sour Cherry
- What are the Side Effects of Sour Cherries?
- Can it be Taken by Pregnant Women?
- Can we give it to Kids?
- Simple Recipe of Sour Cherry
What is Sour Cherry?
Sour cherry is a widely cultivated cherry. These are bright red in color and black soft-fleshed acid fruits. The fruit is plump and rounded. Its flesh contains a small central seed. The flavor is tart, intense and tannic when fresh. Sour cherries are generally available in summer or early fall. Sour cherries are generally sold as jam or dried. Sour cherries are a powerful source of beneficial nutrition. These cherries contain fiber, potassium, vitamin C, vitamin A.
* Nutritional Value
For example, 155-gram sour cherries contain:
| Vitamin C | 15.5m |
| Manganese | 0.174mg |
| Total dietary fiber | 2.5gm |
| Potassium | 268mg |
| Copper | 0.161mg |
| Vitamin B6 | 0.068mg |
| Sodium | 3mg |
| Carbohydrate | 12.55gm |
| Sugar | 8.74gm |
| Protein | 1.03gm |
| Calcium | 16mg |
The following are the health benefits of sour or tart cherries.
7 Amazing Health Benefits of Sour Cherry
Prevent Heart Diseases
Sour cherries are a powerful source of antioxidants such as quercetin. This antioxidant is highly beneficial in reducing blood pressure. It also prevents oxidative damage. It provides you with a daily amount of required antioxidants which helps in fighting heart diseases. These cherries can be consumed as fresh fruit or juice, but fresh fruit is more preferable than juice for heart patients.
Beneficial for Insomnia
Sour cherry is a safe and effective way to treat insomnia. It helps you in increasing your sleep. These cherries contain a good amount of melatonin, which is a kind of hormone responsible for our sleep. According to recent researches, sour cherry juice is quite beneficial for increasing the level of melatonin which helps in improving sleep quality and duration. Such cherries are a good source of tryptophan and anthocyanin also. These two compounds are responsible for creating Melatonin and lengthening its effect.
Reduce the Symptoms of Gout and Arthritis
Sour cherry reduces the symptoms of arthritis, such as inflammation and joint pain. The consumption of tart cherries is highly effective in gout also. Gout is a kind of arthritis which includes repeated swelling attacks and severe pain. Some recent studies suggest that sour cherry has the ability to reduce the blood markers of inflammation in osteoarthritis women patients. Sour cherry juice helps in reducing blood levels of uric acid, which is a chemical that can trigger gout by existing in high amounts in the blood.
Strengthen your Immune System
Sour cherries are rich in vitamins and minerals. The highly beneficial sour cherry plant compounds offer a boost in your immune system. As mentioned above, tart cherries a good amount of antioxidants in it, which prevent our bodies from infections. It has a lot of important nutrients that are helpful in strengthening your immune system.
Cancer Protection
The antioxidants in sour cherries have been shown to reduce cancer growth. It also reduces the proliferation in cell cultures in the laboratory. As it contains melatonin, it might help protect the body from breast cancer. Tart cherries have a number of breast-cancer reducing benefits as it regulates estrogen throughout the body. These cherries are a great example of anti-cancer food. Anthocyanins found in sour cherries make the cancerous cells die faster. Sour cherries are also beneficial for preventing liver, skin, lung and colon cancers.
Helpful in Losing Weight
Consuming a lot of carbohydrates is mainly responsible for weight gain. Most of us think if we decrease the amount of carbs intake, we can lose weight easily. But this is a myth. Choosing the right kind of cards and having a proper amount of it, can help in reducing weight too. Sour cherries can be highly beneficial in losing weight. Sour cherries are generally rich in carbohydrates, which can be supportive in reducing weight. This fruit can control muscle tones also. The intake of sour or tart cherries in a minimum amount is very effective in reducing body weight.
Improved Vision
People who have glaucoma, can be benefited by consuming sour cherries. The anthocyanin present in this fruit may treat those patients. For your information, glaucoma is a buildup of fluid pressure inside the eye which can cause even vision loss. Research suggests that some patients were received treatment with anthocyanins for glaucoma. Those patients showed improvement in their vision after the mentioned treatment.
Now, we will know about the side effects of sour cherries.
What are the Side Effects of Sour Cherries?
Sour cherries are quite the powerhouse of. These are highly beneficial in boosting our immune system, improving brain function, preventing cancer, providing relief in gout and arthritis, helping in losing weight and many more. But that doesn’t mean, we can consume sour cherries with abandon. Intake of too much sour cherries can lead to some unpleasant side effects. Let’s have a look.
Can Lead to Gastrointestinal Issues
Side effects of sour cherry include stomach ache, abdominal discomfort, diarrhea as it contains high sorbitol. Sorbitol is a kind of natural sugar alcohol and consuming too much of it can lead to a strong laxative effect. The strong tart or sour flavor of these cherries can be lead to uncomfortable digestive problems.
Should be Avoided in Diabetes
Sour cherries contain a small amount of fructose. People who are suffering from diabetes should avoid eating sour cherries.
Potential Weight Gain
Sour or tart cherries contain sugar-derived calories, which can be bad for your weight. If you consume sour cherry juice regularly, it can make a difference in your diet. So if you want to start intaking sour cherries, you should limit your sugar intake also for the rest of the day.
Not Appreciate for Kidney Patients
A half-cup of sour cherries contains 131mg potassium in it. A person with kidney dysfunction, who has potassium and other fluid restrictions should not consume sour cherries.
Not Beneficial in Low Blood Pressure Problem
Those who are suffering from low blood pressure problems, should not have sour cherries as it is capable of reducing blood pressure level.
Allergy Problem
Sometimes sensitive people may develop some allergies on high consumption of sour cherries.
Now let’s know if we can give sour cherries to pregnant women or not.
Can it be Taken by Pregnant Women?
Of course, sour cherries can be taken by pregnant ladies. But not in an excessive amount. As they may face uncomfortable side effects by consuming excessive sour cherries. If they have no allergies related to sour cherry, then this fruit can be highly beneficial during pregnancy.
Good for Sleep
Good sleep is very important during pregnancy, no matter how exhausted you are throughout the day. Those pregnant women who are worried about their bad sleep or broken and restless sleep, sour cherry is highly beneficial for them. Sour cherries have a significant amount of natural melatonin, which helps in having a good and deep sleep. Drinking tart cherry juice before bedtime can solve the problem of insomnia for pregnant women.
Boost the Immune System
Sour cherries are a good source of vitamin C. It also has antioxidant properties. It plays a pivotal role in removing free radicals. As the immunity level remains low during pregnancy, sour cherry helps in this situation by boosting the immune system.
Improve the Newborn’s Brain Health
Sour cherries contain anthocyanin, which protects neutral cells and promotes the brain health of the fetus. It prevents pregnancy forgetfulness also.
Alleviate Fatigue
As sour cherries contain enough water content, by regularly consuming pregnant women can solve their problem of fatigue. It can boost their energy also.
Beneficial in Controlling Blood Pressure
As mentioned, sour cherries are loaded with potassium which has the ability to control the blood pressure level. The potassium in it helps in preventing water retention and the risk of preeclampsia during pregnancy.
Treats Constipation
Sour cherries contain a lot of fiber in it. The fiber helps pregnant ladies to get rid of constipation easily. Constipation is a very common problem during pregnancy, so regular intake of sour cherries can normalize the bowel movements.
Helpful in Migraine Headache
During pregnancy, women may face migraine headaches due to preeclampsia and estrogen hormone fluctuations. Sour cherries contain anthocyanin and other bioflavonoids, which helps in curing the migraine headache.
Can we give it to Kids?
Sour cherries are considered a superfood for kids as the fruit is loaded with many nutrients. The following are some of the benefits of sour cherries for kids.
- Good for Brain Health: Sour cherries are rich in antioxidants. Those antioxidants help in the development of kids and in improving the brain health of children.
- Healthy Bones: Sour cherry contains a good amount of calcium which helps in the development of healthy bones of kids.
- Prevents Anemia: Sour cherries are a good source of iron, that helps in preventing anemia.
- Improves Sleep: Sour cherry regulates melatonin, which is a hormone. That’s why sour cherry improves kid’s sleep duration and quality. This is highly effective for kids who sleep less.
- Prevents Dehydration: Sour or tart cherries comprise approximately two-thirds of water. Cherries are juicy fruits. Consuming sour cherry regularly can keep the children away from dehydration.
- Full of Nutrients: Sour cherries contain a good amount of vitamins and minerals. It is a good source of beta-carotene, flavonoids, and antioxidants. It improves kid’s immunity system, keeps their vision and eyes healthy and provides glowing skin to kids.
- Prevents Constipation: As sour cherries contain a good amount of fiber, regular intake of this fruit helps in preventing constipation.
After knowing about the super fruit sour cherry, you must be thinking of making some delicious dishes of sour cherries. So here we will know about one simple yet amazing recipe of sour cherry. Let’s begin with a sour cherry muffin.
Simple Recipe of Sour Cherry
Recipe No.1: Sour Cherry Muffin
Ingredients: For making the delicious sour cherry muffin, you need 1/4 cup water, 2 cups flour, 1 egg, 3/4 cup low-fat buttermilk, 1 cup sugar, 1 tablespoon baking powder, 1 tablespoon of lemon zest, 2 cups fresh sour cherries, 1 cup low-salt butter, and 2 tablespoon icing sugar for garnishing.
Instruction: At first, you need to preheat the oven to 350 degrees and then line the muffin pans with liners. After that, for making the batter, mix buttermilk, water, butter and egg in a bowl. Add the lemon zest in the mixture. Then add the flour, sugar and baking powder. Mix well until incorporated. Lastly, fold the batter in the sour cherries. Stir it until all combined well. Pour the batter equally in the muffin cups. You can also sprinkle little icing sugar on the top. Bake it for 25 minutes. You can check if cooked or not by inserting a toothpick into the center of the muffins. If the toothpick comes clean, then it is done. Let the muffins rest for a few minutes after that and the take those out of the oven. After cooling for 10 minutes, you can enjoy your yummy sour cherry muffins.
As mentioned above, sour cherries are the powerhouse of nutrients such as vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, flavonoids and many more. Consumption of sour cherry is considered of reducing the risks of diabetes, stroke, cardiovascular diseases and some cancers. But much more research is necessary to draw firm conclusions about the possible benefits of sour cherries.
