{"id":274,"date":"2011-05-10T18:30:23","date_gmt":"2011-05-11T01:30:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.veganhealthandfitness.com\/blog\/?p=274"},"modified":"2012-02-20T12:37:57","modified_gmt":"2012-02-20T20:37:57","slug":"are-cherries-the-new-superfood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.veganhealthandfitness.com\/blog\/2011\/05\/are-cherries-the-new-superfood\/","title":{"rendered":"Are cherries the new superfood?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><div id=\"attachment_288\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"width: 310px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.veganhealthandfitness.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/36468p613gpsefe-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"Cherries\" title=\"Cherries\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-288\" align=\"middle\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.veganhealthandfitness.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/36468p613gpsefe-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.veganhealthandfitness.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/36468p613gpsefe.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/www.freedigitalphotos.net\/images\/view_photog.php?photogid=587\"><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image: dan \/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net<\/p><\/a><\/div><br \/>\nWith cherry season almost upon us it is interesting to note that cherries are a particularly healthy fruit.<\/p>\n<p>But don&#8217;t panic if you miss out this season.<br \/>\n<br clear=\"all\"><\/p>\n<h4>The health benefits of cherries<\/h4>\n<p>According to Joel Fuhrman&#8217;s blog <a href=\"http:\/\/www.diseaseproof.com\/\">Disease Proof<\/a> we should <a href=\"http:\/\/www.diseaseproof.com\/archives\/healthy-food-eat-cherries-for-a-healthy-heart-a-good-nights-sleep-and-more.html\">eat cherries for a healthy heart<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The benefits that Deana Ferreri cites in the post are:<\/p>\n<ul style=\"list-style-type:circle\">\n<li>Cherries protect against oxidative stress<\/li>\n<li>Cherries reduce inflammation<\/li>\n<li>Cherries act as a natural painkiller<\/li>\n<li>Cherries may help you sleep<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It is nice to know that such a tasty fruit has all these interesting health benefits.<\/p>\n<h4>The case for variety<\/h4>\n<p>The reality is that all fruits and vegetables contain innumerable antioxidants and phytochemicals that are beneficial to health. It is fun to observe the latest health benefits attributed to a particular plant, but remember that the best approach is to eat a wide variety of fruit and vegetables.<\/p>\n<h4>Superfood media frenzy<\/h4>\n<p>It is hard to get a balanced understanding of nutrition listening to the media because what makes for a good news article (or blog post) doesn&#8217;t provide the most balanced view.<\/p>\n<p>It is typical to see news stories about some food, say cherries, being touted as the latest superfood because research sponsored by some interested party, say the California Cherry Advisory Board, identifies some health benefit.<\/p>\n<p>I expect that with sufficient funding research could be done to show that any food has a health benefit. For example any food fed to malnourished children in Kenya is likely to be beneficial.<\/p>\n<h4>We are still learning<\/h4>\n<p>Over the last one hundred years we have discovered the importance of the macronutrients (carbohydrate, protein, fat) and then vitamins (A, B, C etc.) to health. And recently we have started to realize the importance of the thousands of phytochemicals (flavonoids, phytoestrogens, Lycopene etc.) in plants &#8211; many of which are destroyed by food processing.<\/p>\n<p>We are at an exciting time for nutrition where there is as much to discover as is already known. Your best chance for maximizing your health is to not obsess over the details and focus on the general trend.<\/p>\n<p>If you don&#8217;t get your hands on any cherries this season, don&#8217;t panic, just remember to eat a nice variety of fruits and vegetables. I&#8217;m sure Dr Fuhrman would agree.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/031612091X\/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&#038;tag=vegan075-20&#038;linkCode=as2&#038;camp=217145&#038;creative=399349&#038;creativeASIN=031612091X\"><img decoding=\"async\" border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/ws.assoc-amazon.com\/widgets\/q?_encoding=UTF8&#038;Format=_SL110_&#038;ASIN=031612091X&#038;MarketPlace=US&#038;ID=AsinImage&#038;WS=1&#038;tag=vegan075-20&#038;ServiceVersion=20070822\" ><\/a><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=&#038;l=as2&#038;o=1&#038;a=031612091X&#038;camp=217145&#038;creative=399349\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" style=\"border:none !important; margin:0px !important;\" \/> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/097996671X\/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&#038;tag=vegan075-20&#038;linkCode=as2&#038;camp=217145&#038;creative=399349&#038;creativeASIN=097996671X\"><img decoding=\"async\" border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/ws.assoc-amazon.com\/widgets\/q?_encoding=UTF8&#038;Format=_SL160_&#038;ASIN=097996671X&#038;MarketPlace=US&#038;ID=AsinImage&#038;WS=1&#038;tag=vegan075-20&#038;ServiceVersion=20070822\" ><\/a><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=&#038;l=as2&#038;o=1&#038;a=097996671X&#038;camp=217145&#038;creative=399349\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" style=\"border:none !important; margin:0px !important;\" \/> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/0312338082\/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&#038;tag=vegan075-20&#038;linkCode=as2&#038;camp=217145&#038;creative=399349&#038;creativeASIN=0312338082\"><img decoding=\"async\" border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/ws.assoc-amazon.com\/widgets\/q?_encoding=UTF8&#038;Format=_SL110_&#038;ASIN=0312338082&#038;MarketPlace=US&#038;ID=AsinImage&#038;WS=1&#038;tag=vegan075-20&#038;ServiceVersion=20070822\" ><\/a><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=&#038;l=as2&#038;o=1&#038;a=0312338082&#038;camp=217145&#038;creative=399349\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" style=\"border:none !important; margin:0px !important;\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With cherry season almost upon us it is interesting to note that cherries are a particularly healthy fruit. But don&#8217;t panic if you miss out this season. The health benefits of cherries According to Joel Fuhrman&#8217;s blog Disease Proof we &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.veganhealthandfitness.com\/blog\/2011\/05\/are-cherries-the-new-superfood\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-food"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1rOSJ-4q","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.veganhealthandfitness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.veganhealthandfitness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.veganhealthandfitness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.veganhealthandfitness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.veganhealthandfitness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=274"}],"version-history":[{"count":35,"href":"https:\/\/www.veganhealthandfitness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":430,"href":"https:\/\/www.veganhealthandfitness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274\/revisions\/430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.veganhealthandfitness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.veganhealthandfitness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.veganhealthandfitness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}