Cherries: A Near Unstoppable Fruit For Clearing Acne

The first fact to understand today is that diet can not only cause acne, but banish it. The second fact is that fruits are great for your skin overall, but have a hierarchy. The third fact is that cherries rank close to the top of that hierarchy.

What many people think is a seasonal treat, growing on trees from May to July, or August at higher altitudes, is in fact a seasonal acne-clearing secret. There’s so much evidence for cherries clearing acne that if we analysed all of it today, this article would take an hour to read.

Recently, there’s been a problem with acne patients unjustifiably fearing fruits because of sugar. After learning that diet does cause acne after all, many acne patients jumped into all fruit diets with way too much enthusiasm. With the inevitable explosion of sugar and acne that followed, they then swore off fruits forever, swinging too far back the other way.

In natural circles the fear of fruit persists today, with some justification. Yet the truth is fruits are amazing for acne when controlled, and particularly cherries.

 

Cherries – the acne nutrient analysis

First of all, sweet cherries contain 12.8 grams of sugar per 100 grams, which is reasonably high, but not so high that you have to keep them on a tight leash. Raspberries, strawberries, and blackberries contain just 5 grams, but mangos and grapes both contain 15 grams. The fiber content is also high enough to slow down that sugar’s absorption, at 2.1 grams. If you’ve identified blood sugar spikes as a culprit behind your acne, then never fear, for cherries’ GI score is 22.

Compared to strawberries (97%), pineapple (79%) and kiwi fruits (154%), sweet cherries are pretty feeble for vitamin C, at 12% of the RDI per 100 grams; vitamin C increases collagen formation and decreases stress hormones. Their levels of magnesium (2%), zinc (0%), vitamin A (1%) and vitamin E (0%) are inconsequential, although the sour/tart cherries used for baking do feature 26% for vitamin A.

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Instead, cherries fall alongside apples and blueberries; their nutritional strength relies purely on their antioxidant profile.

Cherries score 3747 on the ORAC scale, almost matching strawberries (4302) and apples (4275), while defeating pineapple (456) and green grapes (1018) with ease. More antioxidants equals more protection against the free radicals which oxidise your sebum and kickstart the acne process.

The variety is also astonishing, including antirrhinin, chrysanthemin, epicatechin, pelargonidin and peonidins. Sweet cherries are the 2nd best food for antirrhinin and 5th best food for chrysanthemin. Interestingly, cherries lack quercetin, a relatively common gut healing saviour, but sweet cherries are also the single best food source of 3-p-Coumaroylquinic acid, a rare antioxidant which is barely researched, and 2nd best for the similarly mysterious 3-Caffeoylquinic acid.

The implications of these antioxidants are special powers, side activities which aren’t immediately obvious. For example, this and this study showed that chrysanthemin can upregulate GLUT-4, the protein in glycogen stores which registers insulin’s presence and opens them up for the incoming energy (glucose). The result could be a lessened requirement for insulin in your bloodstream, and less of the oily skin the hormone causes. Sweet cherries have no studies on insulin sensitivity (except for a failed one on sweet cherry juice, which is too sugary anyway), but chrysanthemin makes them extremely promising.

The 38.43mg of 3-p-Coumaroylquinic acid beats the next best foods by a mile – blackcurrants with 1.73mg and apricots with 1.49mg. The more unresearched antioxidants in a fruit, the better…

 

Cherries – the cure for sleep deprivation?

…but there’s one special acne power which is cemented: cherries are the single best fruit for improving sleep quality.

Ordinarily, sleep-boosting foods supply the basic ingredients for sleep neurotransmitters, like magnesium in dark chocolate and its role in making melatonin. Fruits, almost never impact sleep quality, but cherries are a rare exception, and this is their greatest acne gimmick.

The story begins with an 18 strong study on humans aged 20 to 75, feeding them Jerte sweet cherries. Jerte cherries are simply sweet cherries grown in the Jerte valley, a fantasy landscape of endless blossoming cherry trees located in the heart of Spain. That night, the patients enjoyed (or endured, if you follow the “I’ll sleep when I’m dead” philosophy) significantly increased total sleeping time and immobility.

In a similar vein, this study gave tart cherry juice to 15 insomniacs for 2 weeks, who were otherwise healthy. Total sleep time didn’t improve, but insomnia severity did, defined as minutes awake after sleep onset.

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Our next study was a heavyweight one: double blind and placebo controlled. Tart cherry juice concentrate was fed to 20 human volunteers, whose sleep patterns were tested using questionnaires and the non-invasive method of antigraphy (so no white-haired scientist standing over you with a magnifying glass).

After 7 days of cherry swilling fun, “total melatonin content was significantly elevated“. The placebo group had no such luck. The cherry group experienced significant increases in total sleep time, total time spent in bed, and sleep efficiency.

Finally, we have a Jerte valley cherry study which is basically a repeat of the first one, with 30 volunteers aged 20 to 85. The cherries increased aMT6-s and improved every sleep measurement: number of awakenings, total nocturnal activity, nocturnal rest measured by sleep efficiency, sleep latency, assumed sleep, actual sleep time and immobility. The old people benefited as much as the young.

Out of the thousands of years humans have been eating cherries, for generation after generation, it’s only in the last 10 years that their sleep enhancing abilities have been discovered. There’s almost certainly been an old king with cherries blossoming in his palace gardens who couldn’t work out why he’d been so sleepy for the last few weeks, but there’s never been any science.

 

But why do cherries improve sleep quality?

It’s pretty clear cut: cherries are among the richest fruit sources of melatonin. Ordinarily, your pineal gland secretes melatonin in response to darkness; your body manufactures sleep hormones itself. However, the millions of workers taking melatonin-infused sleeping pills to guarantee 8 hours in bed are a testament that external versions also work superbly, even if humans aren’t designed to obtain it that way. The first study detected increased levels of AMT-6, the main metabolite of melatonin, proving that it’s absorbed effectively as well.

Very few fruits are known to affect sleep. Pineapple has the special feature of enhancing protein digestion, as does papaya, and now cherries have their own special ability.

If you’re looking for one more fruit to slot into your diet, and your sleep sustains you but hardly relaxes you enough to prevent acne and grey skin, then cherries are perfect. Sleep problems are divided into the mental like racing thoughts, and the biological like magnesium deficiency, and cherries can improve the latter. Alternatively, if you live in a polluted town and walk through car fumes daily, the best extra fruit would be pomegranate, with its endless antioxidants.

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Kiwi fruits are the only comparable fruit, according to this study, where 4 weeks of kiwi fruit mania led to a 13% increase in total sleep time. Scientists believed that high levels of serotonin, which converts to melatonin, were responsible.

 

Do sweet cherries lower inflammation?

It’s the second root cause of acne, and while berries and pineapple are unbeatable for lowering inflammation, melon and grapefruit are much weaker. The evidence for cherries is fairly mixed.

Firstly, there’s a well conducted study which we can’t conveniently dismiss, with 49 human dementia patients fed cherry juice for 12 weeks straight. There was no fall in C-reactive protein, the main bio-marker used to assess bodily inflammation levels, nor IL-6. Interleukin-6 (IL-6) is a key inflammatory chemical, one which acne prone skin frequently has higher levels of.

Then there’s one of the Jerte cherry sleeping studies, where pro-inflammatory cytokines were also examined and failed to fall. The cherries improved the patients’ sleep quality effectively, so we can’t just declare that this was a weak and nutritionless batch. Then there’s a lucky group of 9 humans, who spent 1 week doing nothing but eating tart cherries and playing water polo (study). Pro-inflammatory markers like CRP and IL-6 failed to fall again…

…but 9 is a small number of volunteers, and this study on 20 marathon runners had a much different result. After consuming either cherry juice or a placebo, the cherry juice group had much lower C-reactive protein levels 24 and 48 hours after running.

This 2016 study was perhaps the greatest: 27 marathon runners, including 18 men and 9 women, enjoyed a 47% fall in inflammatory markers after running their races with tart cherries flowing through their body. There were even physical signs: a 32% decrease in muscle soreness compared to the placebo group. The biggest decrease was in interleukin-6.

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Then there’s two contradictory studies: first, one involving 16 trained cyclists who ate tart cherry concentrate twice daily for 7 days. Numerous inflammatory chemicals were examined but only C-reactive protein and lipid hydroperoxides fell. IL-6 did not. But in this study on footballers, using tart cherry concentrate, it was IL-6 which fell, and C-reactive protein which didn’t, leaving the scientists confused. Positively though, their muscle soreness fell noticeably.

Similarly, an old 1950 study found that cherry consumption relived symptoms of arthritis, inflammatory assaults on the bones. This, this and this study all reconfirmed a fall in C-reactive protein after consuming cherries.

The evidence is far from overwhelming like with blueberries, ginger or turmeric, but cherries are safely in anti-inflammatory territory. Combined with antioxidants, that’s two out of two for the root causes of acne.

 

Cherries for stress – one of the more promising fruits

It doesn’t end there either, because cherries are well researched for stress reduction. The evidence is less consistent than for sleep quality, but cherries may reduce cortisol, the main stress hormone, the one which weakens collagen proteins and gives you the haggard look.

This study, examining Jerte cherries yet again, observed significantly reduced cortisol in middle aged and elderly patients. Cherries reduced self reported feelings of anxiety, and improved parameters like “frame of mind and fitness” and “family participation”.

For a fruit to noticeably impact mood rather than just subtly alter hormones indicates serious power. However, other studies are weaker. Scientists made human volunteers run a marathon, and fed them either cherries or a placebo. They hypothesised that blood cortisol levels would be lower, but this didn’t occur, after 24 hours and 48 hours.

A study on weightlifting was more promising, however: cortisol levels increased after heavy weight lifting, but by less after 24 hours in the cherry group. It’s possible then, that cherries only work for explosive short term exercise, but our final study was conducted on marathon runners, who ate cherries daily for ten days. 60 minutes after running a 2 hour marathon (each day), the cherry group generally had much lower cortisol.

 

The explanation – serotonin

The first study hinted at why, as levels of 5-HIAA increased in urine. 5-HIAA is a metabolite of serotonin and a reliable biomarker for bloodstream serotonin levels in humans. Low levels are even correlated with aggression, depression and suicidal feelings. Since serotonin is the happiness neurotransmitter, it’s able to reduce feelings of stress which stimulate cortisol release in the first place. Like cantaloupe and honeydew, cherries contain serotonin naturally. This is a nice bonus helping, since we humans are designed to make our own serotonin.

However, the levels aren’t as high as melatonin. This could 1) explain the mixed studies, or 2) indicate that other compounds played a role as well.

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This is where the rare antioxidants like 3-p-Coumaroylquinic acid could be exerting their influence. It’s also possible that melatonin was responsible again. Melatonin naturally suppresses cortisol levels; cortisol fires up neurotransmitters, and summons energising glucose from energy stores, both clear problems for sleeping. The two have an antagonistic relationship. It can’t be vitamin C (which reduces cortisol), as cherries don’t contain much.  

While unproven, stress reduction is another special feature of cherries and they join pomegranates and dark chocolate. Blueberries are excellent for acne, but stress reduction is something they cannot achieve.

Most of the studies above are on exercise recovery, which could derail the power for normal people, but luckily, the one study on elderly people saves us. Plus, gym rats frequently complain of acne, with surging stress hormones joining sweat as a major cause, and if you know exactly what I’m talking about then cherries could be excellent.

As for wider brain function, cherries have successfully improved both long term and short term memory in dementia patients (study). However, this and this study both found no impact on cognitive function and memory in adults, giving us another mixed picture.

 

The first downsides of cherries

The only real natural danger of cherries is their high levels of FODMAPs, a family of short chain carbohydrates which are known to trigger acne in some (full article here).

Like apples and pears, cherries are rich in the polyol FODMAP subtype (the P letter), which includes sorbitol, mannitol and xylitol. These are natural sugar alcohols, but don’t let the name fool you; unlike table sugar, which digest and energises your body in an instant (for better or worse), only 70% of sorbitol is digested. That comes with stomach upset, pain and irritation in susceptible individuals, and acne is another reaction.

FODMAP sensitive people either 1) lack the correct gut bacteria profile, or 2) have poor genetics, with one example being weak GLUT-4 transporters in the intestine. Cherries mainly have sorbitol, which mannitol as their sidekick. Sorbitol is actually an artificial sweetener, with 60% of the sweetness of sucrose, but it’s still a menace for the sensitive. Doctors generally recommend against cherries when prescribing low FODMAP diets.

 

The second downside of cherries

Why did I emphasis natural just above? Because cherries are also in the top twelve most sprayed crops with pesticides, herbicides and insecticides.

Cherries are a beloved delicacy for beetles, moths, and spotted wing drosophila alike. Cherries are also affected by a grey mould, a dense fur you may have noticed with raspberries, apples, tomatoes and strawberries. It almost looks like a snowy, Christmassy version of a raspberry, but it’s not: it’s powdery mildew, a mould caused by podosphaera clandestina, and other podosphaera subspecies in other fruits.

Consequently, in 2018, cherries ranked 7th in the dirty dozen list. For example, over 45.2% of cherry crops are contaminated with the insecticide bifenthrin. This synthetic chemical has “suggestive evidence of carcinogenicity” and is a confirmed hormone disruptor, causing male fish to lose in interest in their female fish in nearby rivers.

Then there’s boscalid, a fungicide designed to suppress the mildew, which occurred in 64.8% of cherry samples. This chemical is safer, but still has “suggestive evidence of carcinogenicity”. All this underlines that buying organic cherries is vital, and underlines the laxness of the industry towards using toxic, potentially acne-causing pesticides overall. Stay alert!

Interestingly, many of the worried people who experienced stomach upset from cherries blamed the pesticides, when it was actually probably the FODMAPs. Regardless, pesticides have more subtle and insidious dangers, particularly if you’re consuming other pesticide sources: conventional apples, conventional strawberries and poor quality, non filtered tap-water.

 

The secret bonus power of cherries 

If you’ve paid close attention, you’ll have noticed that a bonus power has revealed itself in many of the studies described. That power is…

…the enhancement of athletic performance. That’s right, cherries have a treasure trove of studies on fitness and exercise recovery to their name, even more than they have for sleep. Almost all were positive. The water polo study, which we discussed for inflammation, was one of the few where cherries didn’t lead to increased recovery time, and this was explained by the gentleness of the sport barely straining the muscles in the first place.

Elsewhere, we have the following:

ONE: more distance covered in an all out sprint compared to placebo (study).

TWO: 13% faster completion of a marathon accompanied by decreased signs of muscle catabolism (study).

THREE: reduced muscle catabolism and soreness again along with improved strength during recovery after intense squatting (study).

FOUR: improved performance indexes, agility and recovery and decreased soreness in male football players (study).

Better yet, less painful muscles offers more evidence of the anti-inflammatory properties we need for acne. Higher levels of circulating inflammatory chemicals prevent microfissures in muscles from recovering and rebuilding, which appears to ordinary people as soreness.

If you’re looking to pack on muscle in the gym, build long distance endurance, or shed weight to reveal a leaner version of yourself, cherry joins beetroot (which enhances blood flow) as the number one fruit or vegetable to eat.

 

The verdict

Cherries are undoubtedly in the top 50% of fruits for acne. They extinguish the two root causes (inflammation and oxidative stress) while putting you in a coma-like sleep as a side effect. They don’t quite match blueberries or pomegranate, but their profile of rare, unexplored compounds is equally enticing.

When to eat cherries? There’s a conflict, as it’s logical to eat them before bedtime to maximise melatonin, but you could also eat them for breakfast to flatten the natural stress hormone spike which occur after waking. It all depends on your goals.

Just say no to chocolate-coated cherries! Unless of course they’re dark chocolate-coated cherries, which would double the anti-inflammatory benefits. In fact, cherries only contain 7.78mg of the powerful antioxidant epitachin, but cocoa powder is the richest food in it, with 158.3mg per 100 grams. Dipping cherries in some liquefied dark chocolate with a small amount of raw honey for sweetness would diversify the antioxidants even further.

NEXT: discover the root causes of acne and banish your pimples forever

 

Thanks for reading!