Tart cherries hold a host of health benefits

Powdered tart cherries may taste great in your pies, but it seems that having them as part of your diet may be a good idea as well, for a new study has found that they can lower total cholesterol, as well as lower blood sugar among a host of other things.

Washington, May 1 : Powdered tart cherries may taste great in your pies, but it seems that having them as part of your diet may be a good idea as well, for a new study has found that they can lower total cholesterol, as well as lower blood sugar among a host of other things.

The study was conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan Health System, who tested the benefits of tart cherries on a mouse model.

The study's lead author is E. Mitchell Seymour, M.S., a U-M research associate and supervisor of the U-M Cardioprotection Research Laboratory, which studies the potential preventive benefits of antioxidant-rich foods.

The researchers found that mice which received powdered tart cherries in their diet had lower total 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, when compared to a control group of mice that was not given the cherries in their diet.

All of the 48 rats used in the study were male Dahl Salt-Sensitive rats, which are bred for their susceptibility to salt-linked high blood pressure, high cholesterol and impaired glucose tolerance.

The cherries were Montmorency tart cherries grown in northern Michigan, frozen, and powdered.

These kinds of cherries 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 higher concentrations of antioxidant anthocyanins than sweet cherries.

The researchers say the correlation between cherry intake and significant changes in metabolic measurements suggest a positive effect from the high concentrations of antioxidant compounds called anthocyanins that are found in tart cherries.

"Rats fed tart cherries as 1 percent of their total diet had reduced markers of metabolic syndrome. Previous research by other groups studied pure anthocyanin compounds rather than anthocyanin-containing whole foods, and they used concentrations of anthocyanins that would be very difficult if not impossible to obtain in the diet," said Seymour.

However, it's not yet known if cherry-rich diets might have a similar impact in humans, and the researchers caution that their results cannot be directly translated into humans.

"These data from whole tart cherries join other findings that suggest a correlation between anthocyanin intake and reductions in cardiovascular and metabolic risk factors.

But there is still a long way to go before we can advocate any course of action for humans.

Still, the growing body of knowledge is encouraging," added U-M cardiac surgeon Dr Steven Bolling.

The new results were presented on Apr 30 in an oral presentation at the Experimental Biology 2007 meeting in Washington, D.C.

ANI