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Lee Swanson Research Update
Tart Cherries Can Play Role in Sweetening Cardiovascular Health
May 2007
Our love affair with cherries began long before George Washington cut down the tree. We love them au naturel, in pies, covered with chocolate, sitting on top of whipped cream or blended into special sauces. Now it appears that we can love them for supporting a healthy cardiovascular system and more.
According to researchers at the University of Michigan, animals given 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.
The rats used in the study were not the healthiest. They all had a predisposition toward high cholesterol and pre-diabetes, but not obesity. Beginning in their sixth week of life, the rats were fed either a carbohydrate-enriched diet or a diet that included either one or ten percent cherries for 90 days. The higher cherry dose was included to investigate toxic effects, but none were found.
By the end of the study, the rats that received the one percent cherry diet had significantly lower total cholesterol, triglyceride, glucose and insulin levels than those of the rats that did not receive cherries. The same was true for those on the 10% cherry diet, compared with rats that received a diet with an equivalently high level of carbohydrates not from cherries.
The researchers also measured plasma TEAC, a test of antioxidant capacity in the blood, in which a higher reading means better ability to neutralize damaging free radical molecules produced in the body during metabolism. The rats that received cherries had higher antioxidant capacity (indicating lower oxidative stress in their bodies) than those that did not. As storage of excess fat is common in metabolic syndrome, researchers also measured fat levels in the rats' livers, as well as the genetic expression of PPAR (peroxisome proliferators-activating receptor) in the liver. Rats receiving cherries had both a lower level of fat in their livers and a higher expression of the PPAR gene; the correlation between the two was dose-dependent.
Researchers concluded the correlation between cherry intake and significant changes in metabolic measurements suggest a positive effect from the high concentrations of antioxidant anthocyanidins found in tart cherries. They are not certain if cherry-rich diets might have a similar impact in humans, but a small clinical trial is planned.
