Another favourite food that many like to eat is the cherry fruit. Again, like some other fruits, this is a fruit that can be grown in the UK, although of course is far less well know to grow than fruits such as apples. One thing that you might consider therefore if you have the space and time, is to try growing your own cherry tree(s) to gather the fruit – however of course, you might choose to supplement the crop from a shop in addition.
As regards cherries’ nutritional benefits, they have anthocyanins which are a red pigment in colour. The benefits purported to come from cherry anthocyanins are that they were shown to reduce pain and inflammation for rats. Moreover, it was said to inhibit weight and fat gain and that in addition, their blood had less indicators of inflammation related to both heart disease and also diabetes. Furthermore, they had less cholesterol and also triglycerides than other rats had.
Looking in more detail as to cherries’ nutritional benefits, it is stated that on consumption of 100g or 3.5 oz, one could get 7 mg of vitamin C which would approximate to 8% of an RDA for adults and 0.4mg (3%) of iron. Moreover, it has 2g of dietary fibre and in addition 1.1g of protein. One thing to note, is that if you cook the cherries as opposed to eating them raw, then the vitamin C level will be reduced, so with that in mind, you may prefer to eat them fresh other than in foods which might not be so healthy in any case such as cakes which would also possibly have high levels of sugar. Thus, we can see that cherries are a very useful food and can form part of a healthy diet in conjunction with other nutritious foods.
(reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherry)
