A new study presented at the Experimental Biology annual meeting suggest that cherries may help lower the risk of metabolic syndrome (also called insulin resistance syndrome) and cardiovascular disease. In the study, rats were fed whole tart cherry powder equivalent to 1 or 10 percent of their diet for 90 days. That’s estimated to be about 1 ¼ to 1 ½ cups of whole frozen cherries or a little more than ½ cup of dried cherries.
Results showed that the cherry-enriched diets significantly lowered total cholesterol levels, triglycerides, insulin and fasting glucose levels after 90 days. All of these measures are …read more

Muscle pains from too much exercise? Cherry juice might help.
The researchers found that the weakening of the elbow flexion strength in the cherry group was significantly lower than the placebo group. The strength loss after four days, tested on an arm curl bench, was only four per cent for the cherry juice group, but was 22 per cent for the placebo group.
Volunteers who were taking tart cherry juice also reported less muscle pains. The researchers attribute this positive effect of tart cherry juice on the anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties of the flavonoids and athocyanins present in tart cherry juice. Tart …read more