Calories In Cherries
The Variance Of Calories In Cherries
The calories in cherries depend, of course, on how they are either packed or prepared prior to consumption. The highest amount of calories in cherries present themselves in the form of pie fillings, desert toppings, and pitted sour cherries packed in syrup. The canned sour cherries, for instance, which are packed in extra heavy syrup, offer a walloping 298 calories per 1 cup serving. If you actually measure out 1 cup of these cherries, you will find that the average piece of pie they are commonly used for contains 2 to 3 times this recommended serving amount.
Now, we can move down to the amount of calories in cherries which are packed in heavy syrup. Again, this scant 1 cup serving delivers 233 calories to your body, if you are careful enough to stick to the strict serving measurement. In light syrup, these same sour cherries tally in at 189 calories. Pitted sour cherries packed in water reduce our calorie intake to a much more tolerable 88 per 1 cup serving, but the statistics show that we can do better yet.
Oddly enough, the calories in cherries which are sweetened by nature and packed in extra heavy syrup are less than were the sour ones canned in the same fashion, at only 266 per 1 cup serving. These same sweet cherries canned in heavy syrup contain 210 calories, and are reduced to just 149 calories when drained. Juice packed sweet cherries go the bottom line even one better, as the bring 135 calories per 1 cup serving to the table.
The number of calories in cherries when consumed raw is severely reduced whether you choose the sweet or the sour variety. Raw sweet cherries on the pit offer the lowest calorie count by far, at just 74 per 1 cup serving. Should you choose to snack on raw sour cherries, expect to add 4 calories to the sweet cherry total. Either of these fruit choices goes south again, however, on the nutrition scale should you go with the frozen, sweetened varieties. For frozen, sweetened sweet cherries, your calorie total will be 231, and the frozen, sweetened sour cherries will give you a total calorie intake of 248.
As health and an overall sense of well-being are of such high priority, the most obvious choice for daily snacking would be to munch on a handful of raw sweet cherries. Unless you have known sugar or dietary conditions which entail monitoring and careful eating, using the pre-sweetened and syrup packed cherries for desert ideas will not hurt every once in a while. Moderation, as with so many of the things we enjoy, is key to consuming calories in cherries.