National Cherry Day

What is National Cherry Day?

Every 16th of July, National Cherry Day takes place! It's an incentive by the UK government to promote the British Cherry Industry. To take part, we've gone ahead and gone into some details about cherries, their history and their health benefits!

What are Cherries

Cherries are a stone fruit. They're round and small and typically come in red or shades of purple. Sometimes you can find yellow cherries. In the UK, there's two main types of cherries: wild cherries and sour cherries. You can figure out which kind of cherry is best for you depending on its colour - the richer the colour, the sweeter it is.

Cherries and their History

During the 20th century, Great Britain lost around 90% of its cherry orchards. Whilst we still import about 95% of our cherries, the UK has seen a 17% increase in its cherry industry between 2003 and 2008. The UK Government aims to boost this, and National Cherry day is one of the ways it aims to do so.

Cherries come from Asia Minor, which is where modern day turkey is. They were brought over when the Roman Empire expanded. When Henry VIII first tasted cherries, he was blown away. He demanded that they be grown in the UK, which lead to the construction of the Cherry Orchards of Kent.

Health Benefits

As with most fruit, cherries boast a wide range of vitamins and minerals that can help your body. Cherries are supposed to help boost your quality of sleep and other studies suggest that it can help boost recoever after an exercise

High in Fibre

Cherries are high in fibre, which helps your body keep its digestive system healthy. It also reduces the risk of heart disease as well as diabetes.

High in Antioxidants

The Antioxidants in your cherries can help protect your body from damage. Free Radicals are molecules in the body that are highly reactive. They can react (or oxidise) with your healthy cells and damage them. Antioxidants fight this process. This also prevents inflammation within the body.

Promotes Sleep

Cherries have a high amount of Melatonin, which helps mantain your body's sleep-wake cycle. When it's time to sleep, your the amount of melatonin your body produces rises, which makes you feel tired.

Cherries also have a high level of serotonin, which regulates your mood. Low amounts of serotonin is linked to conditions such as anxiety, lack of sleep and even depressiong. If the body gets a healthy amount of serotonin, Melatonin levels are boosted, thus promoting better sleep.

If that isn't enough, Cherries also have a high Trypotphan count, which boosts serotonin production.

Promotes Muscle Recovery

Studies have suggested that cherries promote muscle recovery after a workout, which makes you feel less store. One specific study focused on how a tart-cherry powder supplement affected two groups of people. Both groups were to run a half marathon, and for the 10 days before, they were asked to have a supplement. One group had a tart-cherry powder, and the other had a placebo (which did nothing). After the marathon, the group that had the tart-cherry powder reported that they felt less achy after the race and they also had a 13% faster time.