Cherries are tasty fruit and rich of nutrients for our body, they contain many minerals and lots of potassium, excellent to fight hypertension. They are mainly composed by 80% water, sugars, vitamins A and C, potassium, phosphorus, iron, calcium, sodium and magnesium. Moreover, they have purifying and detoxing properties, besides diuretic and laxative.
They are particularly suggested during the summertime because they can restore mineral salts we lost with sweating. Une portion of 100g cherries contain in fact only 38 calories.
Moreover, thanks to the presence of flavonoids together with vitamins A and C, eating cherries stimulates the production of collagens. This way they carry lots of benefits to skin.
The malic acid present inside the cherries is also useful because it favours digestion of sugars and hepatic activity.
Before and after an intense physical activity, the cherry juice is excellent to recover energy. The Northumbria University has researched cherries beneficial qualities on 20 marathoners:
Half drank cherry juice twice a day for 5 days before and 2 days after the race. The other half instead just had a placebo.
Among the group of those who drank the juice there has been a quicker recover of energy, together with less inflammation and less oxidative stress of muscles, a condition that can be caused by prolonged efforts.
According to authors of this research, this result can help also non-athletes, most of all those who suffer inflammation such as arthritis.
Dehydrated cherries contain a higher level of antioxidants than fresh cherries and prevent also many inflammatory diseases.