"A whole bowl full of sour cherries

I hate to belabor this cherry thing, but many of you have written me to ask just how many cherries are needed to get the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory benefits of the tart little cuties.

Dr. Muralee Nair writes in the Journal of Natural Products that about 20 tart cherries will do the job. That daunting pile of sour fruit (have you ever eaten a tart cherry much less twenty without a pie around it?) delivers the 12-25 mg. of anthocyanins known to deliver the cherry goods to you. Dr. Nair hopes that one day the anthocyanins will be out of the cherry and into a pill. The Michigan State University researcher had these final words:

Then people can pop a pill instead of eating a whole bowl full of sour cherries. That's pretty hard to do.

Popping a pill or eating the cherries?