Cherries May Help you Lose Weight

Healthy Benefits of CherriesLast night, I dreamt of cherries. According to books on dream interpretations, to dream about cherries has to do with wish fulfillment. I suppose as a cook, food writer, and recipe developer, if I want to fulfill my wishes, I head to the farmer’s market.

Low-key Friday nights make for easy-to-rise early Saturday mornings. My husband and I managed to get to the farmer’s market in Union Square, NYC at 9 am which is early for us. Shoppers with wiggly babies, grinning dogs, and overloaded baskets bustled by. Every other table was piled high with sour cherries, sweet plump black cherries, and shy blushing cartons of dainty white cherries. The black cherries caught my eye as the idea of cherry cheesecake ice cream hovered in my imagination.

But ice cream aside, eating a small bowl of fresh cherries can help you lose weight instead of reaching for that bowl of ice cream. Why?

Pints of CherriesCherries, like many fruits are high in water content. Your body retains water content in fruit more efficiently than just drinking a glass of water that has a tendency to cycle through your system quickly. Besides that, sweet summer cherries are low-cal (one cup is about 90 calories). They have plenty of other beneficial health properties – they are high in phytonutrients, powerful antioxidants that protect the heart, and just one cup gives you 10% of your daily requirement for fiber.

So let’s get back to dessert, you’re thinking. Alright, if you want to indulge, I’ve created a recipe that uses antioxidant-rich cherries and moist low-fat cake. I took my succulent farmer’s market cherries and cooked them in their own juices for a start.

Pints of CherriesWell that looks like the start to an upside down cake to me. Normally upside down cakes give me the creeps because I’ve tasted so many bad ones, but mine will be homemade and fresh from start to finish and I’ll serve it with low-fat buttermilk ice cream or low-fat frozen yogurt. Mmm, sounds like summer dreams to me, one that is low in fat and easy on the hips. What are some of your favorite ways of eating or cooking with cherries?

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