The Eurostar Tri-City-Blog1

06 August 2010

Cherries, cherries everywhere

You can always tell when we are getting into the depths of summer because our beloved roadside cherry stands start to pop-up along the country lanes.

I'm a particular fan of these because the majority of these cherries are grown by locals and tend to be a lot tastier than the ones you get in supermarkets.

As well as the stands, you also get to see a variety of weird and wonderful sporting activities on our roads, ranging from street football to horse riding and more traditionally, cycling. Especially as the nation continues to keep one eye on its fitness I have started to notice more and more cyclists out and about on the roads with their snazzy bikes and backpacks carrying the latest drinks fuel.

The thing that sparked me into doing this latest bit of Google research was the number of said cyclists perched up against these fruit stands as part of their ride. It made me wonder whether there were any foodstuffs that athletes could be eating in the build up to big events. (See, there was a link back to our three citied adventure in there eventually).

It turns out that the aforementioned cherry is a 'must eat' in this context as they not only taste good but their health benefits put them up there in the sport food stakes. So I thought I'd share this with our Tri-City-Athletes as an edible option in the build up to the event.

Apparently, (and here's the science bit) according to various bodies of research, cherries contain powerful antioxidants that have an impact on relieving muscle and joint soreness similar to anti-inflammatory drugs. They rate even higher than blueberries and strawberries, with one cup of cherries only containing about 22 grams of carbohydrates, 3 grams of fibre about 90 calories and absolutely no fat. That's what we like to hear.

And that's not the end of the cherry plug, they also turn out to be one of the few food sources of something called melatonin, which helps with your sleep patterns, which is nice for those of you who may be a little nervous ahead of the event.

To achieve these benefits it's suggested that you consume the equivalent of 2 cups of cherry juice per day.

However you can of course try things like adding cherries to yoghurt and granola as a nice breakfast parfait, or even adding cherries to your cereal in the morning. If you are feeling particularly adventurous and own a blender, why not throw together a smoothie with yoghurt, milk, fruit juice and stoned cherries.

Please do let me know if you have any go-to meals that you can recommend to your fellow Tri-City-Athletes. I'd be more than happy to share them here, just email info@eurostartricityathlon.com.