Nutritional Facts For Frozen Pitted Cherries

An annual harbinger of summer, fresh cherries grace the produce aisles of grocery stores around the country from May through August. During the rest of the year, frozen cherries provide cherry lovers with a way to enjoy the flavor and nutritional benefits of cherries. Though frozen cherries eaten alone cannot compare with the taste of fresh cherries, they can provide a delicious and nutritious addition to smoothies, baked goods and bowls of ice cream.

Basic Nutrition

Unsweetened pitted frozen sour cherries provide 71 calories, 17 of carbohydrates, 2.5 g of dietary fiber, 1.4 g of protein and less than 1 g of fat per cup. Unsweetened dark frozen sweet cherries have 90 calories, 22 g of carbs, 3 g of dietary fiber, 2 g of protein and 0 g of fat per cup. Due to added sugar, sweetened frozen cherries pack more than twice as many calories per cup.

Vitamins

A cup of sour frozen pitted cherries provides 10 percent of the recommended dietary allowance, or RDA, of vitamin A for adult women and 8 percent of the RDA of vitamin A for adult men. Sweet pitted cherries offer less vitamin A than sour cherries, but they have more vitamin C. A cup of sweet cherries offers 14 percent of the RDA of vitamin C for women and 12 percent of the RDA of vitamin C for men.

Minerals

A cup of sweet pitted cherries provides 7 percent of the RDA of potassium, while a cup of sour pitted cherries has 4 percent of the RDA of potassium. A cup of sour pitted cherries has 10 percent of the RDA of iron for adult men and 5 percent of the RDA of iron for adult women. Sweet cherries provide 7 percent of the RDA of iron for men and 3 percent of the RDA of iron for women. Both types of frozen pitted cherries are low-sodium foods.

Benefits

Incorporating cherries regularly into your diet -- particularly tart cherries -- might offer additional health benefits, according to research reported in the "Journal of Medicinal Food" in October 2009. Rats fed a high-fat diet mixed with tart cherry juice powder gained less weight and body fat than their noncherry-eating counterparts. The cherry-eating rats also had healthier blood profiles, including lower blood cholesterol and triglycerides, plus reduced risk factors for heart disease and type 2 diabetes.