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Reap the goodness of red fruit
Reap the goodness of red fruit: Sure, they look pretty and taste great. But did you know red fruit also protect you against serious health problems?
Cheryl Redmond
TART CRANBERRIES. TANGY red grapefruits. Sweet and sour cherries. Plump, juicy strawberries and raspberries. Cool, refreshing watermelons. With their vibrant colors and flavors, and versatility in the kitchen, easy-to-find red fruit are easy to love. Lucky for you, they're also powerful guardians of your health.
Red fruit are loaded with beneficial plant compounds called phytochemicals, which preserve your health in several ways. These phytochemicals can keep your brain agile as you age, guard against heart disease and cancer, ease arthritis, and ward off urinary tract infections and ulcers. Many phytochemicals are antioxidants, which fight off health-damaging free radicals.
Here's a closer look at six standout red fruit, plus six delicious recipes to help you reap their benefits.
Did You Know Cherries Can Erase Pain?
Whether you eat them in pie or by the handful, cherries are a worthwhile treat. Ripe, juicy cherries yield a surprising range of health benefits, from arthritis relief to sleep enhancement to cancer prevention. Muralee Nair, Ph.D., and his colleagues at the University of Michigan at East Lansing have identified at least 17 antioxidant compounds in cherries. Tart cherries and sweet cherries (which are different varieties) have the same compounds, but tart cherries have higher levels of them. A group of these compounds called anthocyanins inhibits enzymes
that cause inflammation. In fact, Nair's research shows that the anthocyanins in just 35 tart cherries reduce pain and inflammation better than aspirin. Although many people swear by drinking tart cherry juice for arthritis relief, Nair cautions that his research was done on whole cherries, not juice, and that cherry juice may not contain all the compounds found in the fruit.
Cherries are also a great source of melatonin, a hormone that your body uses to regulate its sleep patterns. They're a significant source of quercetin, a flavonoid that has shown anticancer and antioxidant power in test tube and animal studies. And they contain perillyl alcohol, which has been found to inhibit breast, ovarian, and prostate cancers
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