Cherries
Why cherries are anti-inflammatory
Cherries are anti-inflammatory, and the clearest example is also the oldest one: gout. A gout attack is inflammation you can watch happen. Uric acid, a waste product your body makes every day, builds up in the blood until it forms sharp crystals inside a joint that swells overnight. Cherries bring that uric acid down, which is why people with gout have been eating them for a hundred years.
Two different fruits get sold as cherries, and they are not equally useful. Sweet cherries are the ones you eat by the handful in summer. Tart cherries are too sour for that, so they turn up as juice, dried or frozen instead. The red colour comes from anthocyanins, and a tart cherry holds several times more of them than a sweet one.
Uric acid is not the whole story. Cherries also soften the ache that arrives a day or two after hard exercise. That ache is inflammation too: the muscle is damaged, and the soreness is your immune system repairing it. Runners who drink tart cherry juice around a race get their strength back faster.
What to watch is the form you buy. Dried cherries are nearly always sweetened, because unsweetened ones are hard going. Juice concentrate squeezes a large bowl of fruit into a small glass and leaves the fibre behind. Whole cherries have the opposite problem, which is no problem at all: the stones slow you down. That is why cherries sit at the bottom of the inflammation scale.
Cherries on the AIP diet
Cherries are allowed on the Autoimmune Protocol in every phase, elimination included. They are a fruit, so they clear the grains, legumes, nuts, seeds, nightshades and dairy that the elimination phase removes. Two things to read on the label: dried cherries are almost always sweetened, and bottled cherry juice is often cut with apple or grape juice. Keep the total fruit sugar across the day modest.
Benefits
- Bring down uric acid, the waste product that forms the crystals behind a gout attack
- Tart cherries carry several times more of the red anthocyanin pigment than sweet ones
- Drunk around a hard race, tart cherry juice gets strength back faster
- One of the few foods with real melatonin, the hormone that starts your sleep
Watch out for
- Lower uric acid is not the same thing as fewer gout attacks
- Dried cherries are nearly always sweetened, which puts them closer to sweets
- Juice concentrate keeps the sugar of a big bowl and drops the fibre
- Cherry pie filling and jam are mostly sugar with a little fruit in them
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Frequently asked
Are cherries inflammatory?
No, cherries are anti-inflammatory. The clearest sign of it is gout, where uric acid forms sharp crystals inside a joint and the joint swells overnight. Cherries bring that uric acid down, which is why they have been a gout remedy for a hundred years.
Are tart cherries better than sweet cherries?
For inflammation, yes. Tart cherries hold several times more of the red pigment that does the work, which is also why they are too sour to eat raw. Sweet cherries are still whole fruit and still worth eating. They are simply the milder version of the same thing.
Is tart cherry juice as good as whole cherries?
It is more concentrated, and that cuts both ways. A small glass holds the fruit of a large bowl without the fibre, so the sugar arrives fast. If you drink it, buy the pure kind rather than a blend, and treat it as a portion of fruit rather than as a drink.
Are cherries allowed on the AIP diet?
Yes, in every phase including elimination. They are a fruit, so they avoid the grains, legumes, nuts, seeds, nightshades and dairy that AIP removes. Watch the label on dried cherries and on juice, which are usually sweetened or cut with other fruit.
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