Chocolate milk has long been touted as is the ultimate recovery drink post-exercise, but today’s post focuses on a new beverage that could challenge that title very soon: Tart Cherry Juice.
Many major professional sports teams, as well as colleges, have started to adopt the use of tart cherry juice to help their athletes recover. Cheribundi, one of the largest tart cherry juice suppliers, has been used by many professional sports teams including the last 5 Superbowl champs, every NCAA basketball champ since 2004, and many more. Why all the hype? We’ll let’s take a closer look at the health benefits…
Tart Cherries themselves are a good source of fiber as well as contain a decent amount of Vitamin A when you eat the whole fruit. However, while you may not get as much fiber or vitamin A in the juice you will still reap the benefits of an antioxidant-rich food. Touting an increased antioxidant capacity compared to regular cherries, tart cherries have been shown to help reduce the effects of prolonged exercise, such as inflammation and oxidative damage and promote a faster recovery in muscle strength. One study, in particular, followed marathon runners who consumed two 8 ounce servings of fresh tart cherry juice 5 days before, on the day of, and 2 days after the race, and compared them to runners who did not. The runners who consumed tart cherry juice showed significant improvements in muscle strength recovery, as well as decreased inflammation, compared to the runners who did not.
Tart cherry juice has also been used to promote a better nights sleep, particularly because of its high concentration of Melatonin, which is a hormone that is produced naturally in the body to help regulate sleep. When consumed during the day and before bed, studies have shown tart cherry juice to increase the levels of Melatonin in the brain. The higher the levels of Melatonin in the brain, the better sleep you get, and those who drank 16 oz. of tart cherry juice before bed on average slept 85 minutes longer than the others. It has been found to be just as, if not more, effective in reducing insomnia than other natural remedies for insomnia such as Valerian root and Melatonin.
If you are in the market for a trendy new recovery drink which offers a wealth of benefits, then tart cherry juice may be just right for you!
Sources:
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/10-tart-cherry-juice-benefits#section3
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/19883392/
https://insights.ovid.com/pubmed?pmid=28696985
https://cheribundi.com/