Here's a snack with potential benefit other than immediate gratification!
Dark chocolate covered tart cherries. Dark chocolate is a great antioxidant. So are tart cherries.
Of course, if you eat them by the bucketful the cost of the choice can begin to outweigh the benefit.
But in moderation--even a couple thrown into a smoothie--you're doing better than you might imagine.
You can even take the cue from the photo and make your own, which allows you to dip the cherries in more chocolate and less sugar than pre-prepared versions might contain.
Here's a link to an online cherry store where you can buy some, if you can't find them in your local market.
I'm still trying to figure out why my clients have trouble with healthy eating. It's so tasty when you do it well!
I'm not at all a fan of the Food Guide Pyramid or the new My Pyramid. I know too much about the politics of how each food got its position in the diagram. And I know that the concept is promoted by the Department of Agriculture, not the Department of Health and Human Services. So it's really about marketing commodities at least as much, if not more than, promoting healthy eating.
Last year at this time it occurred to me that eating patriotically (if you are a citizen of the United States, France, Chile, Czechoslovakia, and the United Kingdom, to name a few), is a fun way to think about what constitutes a healthy choice.
So I went to Google to see if there was anything under the term,"food flag". I found this:
Sausage and pasta were not really what I had in mind, so I scrolled further, and found this:
Absolutely not what I wanted to communicate!
So…I had a little fun and I made my own. I hope you like it!
I posted a bigger version on my website, feel free to use it as long as you keep the copyright notice intact in the lower righthand corner. You can find it at www.afterthediet.com/foodflag.htm.
It's my absolute favorite time of year, when cherries are cheap. I wait all summer for July! Even though I usually eat all my cherries before I have a chance to do anything else with them, a few years ago I did find a cherry salsa recipe in a Costco cookbook that earns raves every time I take it to a party.
Cherries are a great anti-inflammatory, and they are also high in melatonin. So they do double duty in helping to balance hormones. Eat them plain…throw them in a smoothie…try this salsa…no matter how you pit 'em, you can't go wrong!
I just love cherries. When I was a little girl, we took a vacation to my mother's homeland, Germany. We visited her Onkel Gustav, who one afternoon took us to a part of his farm where he had some cherry trees, buckling under the pressure of the season's ripeness.
My mother looked at me and my brother and said,"Onkel Gustav says to eat as much as you want!" For a kid from Arizona who usually only got to eat cherries one week every summer when they were cheap, this was Cherry Nirvana.
We ate, and ate, and ate. We hung them over our ears like they were earrings. We threw them at each other. We ate some more. Our lips turned red, our shirts got stained. And we ate even more cherries. Eventually we had to get on a ladder to reach more cherries, because we'd eaten everything at the bottom of the tree.
Eventually, our pace slowed down and our bellies felt as though they were going to bust. So we sat down and relaxed for a little bit until Onkel Gustav said to us,"So, are you all ready for some lunch?"
My parents recently converted old family movies into video, so I can sit down and relive that wonderful memory any time I want. But this time of year, I'd rather relive that memory real-time by splurging on a bag of fresh cherries. Which is what I did this week.
Did you know that cherries contain anthocyanins? That's the chemical that makes blueberries so famous for being brain food. Anthocyanins are an antioxidant that can help to regulate pain and reduce inflammation. (Remember, PCOS is a disease of inflammation.)
Cherries have also been found to be high in melatonin. Melatonin is also a potent anti-oxidant. I like to call it the brain's"scrubbing bubble", because while we're sleeping it is actively scouring out oxidative damage from the day and keeping our brains safe from free radicals.
According to the California Cherry Advisory Board, cherries also have a nice boron content, which may help to strengthen bones. Many of you reading this blog are on psychotropic medications, some of which have been found to work against good bone integrity. For you, cherries are an excellent dietary choice!
If you happen to live in cherry country, now is the time to stock up and freeze some cherries to use throughout the year. You can also find cherry juice in many health food stores, which is great to add to a smoothie or to another juice you might be drinking.
One last note, which I do want to include, knowing how many cherries I can eat before realizing how many cherries I've eaten, is that 20 cherries equals about 80-90 calories. I'm usually an intuitive eater, but when it comes to cherries, I've learned that this is one food I do better with when I count them out ahead of time.
For those of you who need to watch your blood glucose and carbohydrates, you might do better eating cherries at mealtime, when the effect of their sugar content can be tempered with any protein you might be eating.
Montmorency cherries (and walnuts) have a high melatonin content, and I just discovered they're available in dried form at Trader Joes! I stopped by their demo table this afternoon and they had a great, simple cherry chicken salad.
Such a versatile food…on your oatmeal, in your trail mix, on your salads, or even…your Memorial Day bowl of ice cream.: )
Enjoy!
Cherry Chicken Salad
1/3 cup nonfat yogurt 1/3 cup walnuts 1/3 cup dried tart (Montmorency) cherries 1 can (or 6 oz cooked) chicken 1/3 tsp garlic powder
