People have been using Cherries for Health Benefits for a long time now, but lately they have gotten even more popular. As with other fruits and vegetables, modern science has given us the ability to look inside a cherries chemical makeup and see what there is about them that makes them so good for you. When this was done, the amount of cherries health benefits were found to be even greater than expected.

Cherries are one of the all time favorite fruits. This may be in part to their extremely short growing season. You can only buy them fresh around 10 weeks of the year. Thanks to the delicious taste, everyone is always so happy to see them come and sad to see them go. Happily, they can be frozen, dried, canned or brandied and still have that great sweet taste.

There are two varieties of cherry, the sweet and the sour. The sweet varieties, such as the bing, are the ones that you find in the super market and are great to eat right out of the bag. If you have ever eat one, you will be a cherry lover for life. The sour varieties, such as the Montmorency, are usually used for canning or concentrate immediately after harvesting. These are the ones you can buy on the grocer's shelves year round and are great for pies and desserts.

You may be wondering what cherries health benefits are and why good they are for you. Cherries have so many benefits it is hard to know where to begin. One of the main benefits of cherries are their antioxidant content. Antioxidants are very high in cherries. When the antioxidant quality is high in a fruit, it helps prevent and fight major illnesses like cancer and heart disease. Nutrition experts suggest that if we get three to five thousand units of antioxidants each day it will tremendously help our bodies in their fight with free radicals, which can hurt us in so many ways. A single ounce of cherry juice provides 3,622 antioxidant units. That constitutes the entire supply for one day, from one small serving. A well known fact about cherries among health food experts is that it has the highest antioxidant content of all other fruits and vegetables.

One of the main diseases cherries health benefits are most notable for is gout. Gout is a painful condition that occurs when the uric acid in the blood gets in the joints and crystallizes. The body usually get rid of its uric acid through urine, but at times and for various reasons it is not doing an efficient job. Of course the more you urinate, the better the chances of eliminating the uric acid. Individuals with gout should always drink a large amount of liquids. One of the liquids that have been found to do the most good for gout is black cherry juice. People who consume cherries or cherry juice on a regular basis are found to have less problems with gout and gout flareups. Around 1950 it was studied and confirmed that a daily dose of cherries helped to relieve pain from gout and inflammation in general. The study showed that the cherries lowered the uric acid in the blood stream, thus the joints had less trouble with crystallization. Later studies have confirmed the 1950 study as being accurate.

Another substance found plentiful in cherries is anthocyanins. There are many serious medical problems anthocyanins have been found to help, including stroke, high blood pressure and migraines. Anthocyanins belong to a group of compounds called flavonoids, which are known to give the body a large number ways to aid in its fight against different diseases.

If you travel a lot you probably know all about jet lag. Many travelers will travel with a bottle of melatonin to help ease jet lag, but there is another way to solve this problem and it is all natural. Cherries are one of the few foods that have enough melatonin content to not only help with jet lag, but help you get a good nights sleep. There are a vast amount of people who say a spoon of cherry concentrate before bed time helps give them natural sleep patterns.

There are actually many other healthy reasons to eat cherries that haven't been covered in this article, but the knowledge of cherries health benefits are becoming better known ever year. If you love cherries as much as I do, that is great news. Who would have thought something that tasted so good could also be so good for you. If you like cherries be sure and visit one of our other sites Cherries Health Benefits.