I love cherries at this time of the year. Recently, a study revealed a new purpose for eating cherries:
Investigators at the University of Arkansas suggests that Montmorency tart cherries can be added to the list of gut-friendly foods and may play an important role in improving gut health.
The Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry published the reason why cherries are so important to the microbiome. It is the their content of polyphenols. Polyphenols are important antioxidants. The benefit of green tea is from their polyphenol content.
Pure polyphenols characteristics of tart cherries increased the amount of Bifidobacterium. However, when concentrated juices were fermented, this bifidogenic effect appeared to be leveled out by the larger increase of polysaccharides utilizing bacteria
So the lesson is...Eat more tart cherries. Most know that tart cherries help reduce the incidence of gout.
Until tomorrow...