What makes berries, cherries and pomegranates unique and beneficial? Berries and cherries are high in nutrients, phytochemicals, and fiber—all of which protect your health. Notably, berries have the highest nutrient-to-calorie ratio of all fruits.
Berries, cherries and pomegranates are full of beneficial phytochemicals, many of which act as antioxidants. Berries are some of the highest antioxidant-rich foods in existence and cherries—which are not berries, but rather a stone fruit (like peaches and plums)—are also rich in flavonoid antioxidant compounds.
Antioxidants are critical for your health as they protect against oxidation and minimize damage to your cells from free radicals. Free radicals are molecules with unpaired electrons, so they are unstable, and can potentially injure cells, negatively affect genetic material and cause destructive chain reactions. Accumulated free radical damage over time ages the body and catalyzes a host of chronic diseases, including heart disease and cancer.
Antioxidants can neutralize free radicals and slow or stop their reactions. Some familiar types of antioxidants we get from foods include vitamin C, vitamin E, the minerals selenium and manganese, and carotenoids like beta-carotene. Other types of antioxidants are called flavonoids. Flavonoids occur as pigments in fruits and flowers. Berries, cherries and pomegranates are abundant in flavonoids, which are concentrated in their skins and give rise to their deep hues of red, blue, and purple.3 Flavonoids are thought to have a number of additional beneficial effects in the body, beyond their antioxidant capacity. In fact, flavonoids, in contrast to other dietary antioxidants, are believed to contribute to health primarily due to their ability to modify cell signaling pathways, not their antioxidant capacity. Flavonoids affect pathways leading to changes in gene expression, detoxification, inhibition of cancer cell growth and proliferation, and inhibition of inflammation and other processes related to cancer and heart disease.
Reduction in Heart Disease Risk
Likely due to these cell signaling actions of flavonoids, several studies have shown that high flavonoid intake lowers the risk of heart disease by up to 45%. Flavonoids in berries, cherries and pomegranates and other pomegranate polyphenols appear to act in several different ways to maintain heart health including by reducing inflammation, improving blood lipid, blood pressure, and blood sugar levels, and by preventing plaque formation.
Protection Against Cancers
The antioxidants in berries, cherries and pomegranates help to protect against cancers. In the 1980s, ellagic acid, another type of antioxidant abundant in berries, blocked the formation of tumors, providing the initial evidence that these fruits were anti-cancer foods. Flavonoids have powerful anti-cancer effects including reducing inflammation, preventing damage to genetic material, preventing cancer cells from multiplying, slowing the growth of cancer cells, preventing tumors from acquiring a blood supply, and stimulating the body’s own antioxidant enzymes. Pomegranate has anti-angiogenic properties that prevent tumors from getting nourishment and oxygen via blood vessel support. Pomegranate also can reduce breast cancer risk with natural aromatase inhibitors, which inhibit the production of estrogen.
