Are Cherries Acidic? Cherries and Acid Reflux

Whenever you hear the word cherry what comes to your mind? Sweet reddish fruit with a beautiful shape and yummy taste. But are cherries only bringing sweet memories? What about their sour taste or acidic nature? They are a fruit and almost all fruits have more or less citric acid. So are they good for people suffering from acid reflux or not?

So let’s find out about it.

pH of cherries

Source: healthline.com

The pH of cherries ranges from 3.2 to 4.5, which is slightly acidic in nature. It is close to neutral and therefore, it won’t affect the acidity of your stomach to a serious level. So you can easily eat a cup or more of cherries a day. However, do not make it our habit to eat this many cherries on a daily basis. Because their acidic nature will harm your stomach in the longer run.

The acidity level of 3.2 pH means that they are among the most acidic fruits like lemons, limes and grapefruits.

The main component in cherries that results in increasing their acidity is Pantothenic acid and Vitamin C. However, the question is if it affects GERD or not.

But wait,

What is GERD?

If you are not suffering from it, you are lucky. It is Gastroesophageal reflux disease.

So why do they not like lemons and lime?

If the acidity level is almost similar to lemons then why the difference in taste? How can we eat cherries pleasingly? This is because of their sweet taste. Although they have high vitamin c concentration, they also have natural sugars. Thus, the sweet and tangy flavor makes them delicious to eat.

Cherries and GERD

Source: healthline.com

So you now know about cherries and their acidic nature. What is the outcome then? Are they good for GERD or not?

If you are a cherry lover and are suffering from GERD, you are lucky because they won’t cause you any harm. Despite their acidic nature, cherries are unlikely to worsen the symptoms of GERD. But of course, this is with moderate eating.

If you are planning to eat a cup of cherries daily, it will only do you more harm.

But wait,

You should also know that human bodies differ from each other. Therefore, if one GERD patient has no effect from eating cherries it does not mean that everyone is safe from them. So suit your body and its functioning. If cherries go well with your stomach, you can have them. However, if they cause discomfort, you should stop eating them immediately.

Another thing that you can do is to have sweet cherries. As the acidic nature of cherries differs from each other, their sweetness also varies. So if you crave cherries, you should go with the sweetest ones. They will have the least effect on your GERD.

But be very careful with this too. If even the sweet cherries make you feel uncomfortable, avoid them too.