A Cherry on Top: Tart Cherries May Alter Heart/Diabetes Factors

Tart cherries may be good for more than just making pie. Researchers report that rats that received powdered tart cherries in their diet had lower total cholesterol, lower blood sugar, less fat storage in the liver and lower oxidative stress, compared with rats that didn’t receive cherries. Tart cherries may be good for more than just making pie, according to new data from an animal study conducted by University of Michigan Health System researchers and presented  at a major scientific meeting.

In a study involving rats, the researchers report that animals that 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, compared with rats that didn’t receive cherries as part of an otherwise similar diet. All of the rats had a predisposition toward high cholesterol and pre-diabetes, but not obesity.

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.
A U-M team will soon launch a small clinical trial to start to find out. Meanwhile, additional research is being carried out in animals prone to both obesity and diabetes.

“Rats fed tart cherries as 1 percent of their total diet had reduced markers of metabolic syndrome,” says Seymour. “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.”