Tart Cherries: A Healthy Choice!

Tart Cherries are loaded with antioxidants and other bio-active compounds that are clinically proven to have a positive impact on your health.  Aside from the taste of tart cherries, everything about them is more or less good for you.  The different bio-active compounds all play a different role in promoting good health and wellness.  From vitamins and minerals to phytochemicals, such as phenolic acids, tart cherries are a one stop shop for essential elements that can open up biological pathways (allowing blood to flow freely and to more areas of the body) as well as antioxidants that can help prevent chronic diseases.  Adding tart cherries to your everyday diet can prove beneficial in more ways than one.

Consuming whole, fresh tart cherries is the best way to receive all of the nutrients that they have to offer.  Consuming them in other ways, such as in dessert or in a lot of cherry juice varieties, normally decreases the amount of nutritional value you are gaining from each tart cherry.  Tart cherries in desserts are consumed with other ingredients that aren’t necessarily as healthy for you.  Depending on the other ingredients, this may defeat the purpose of eating them to begin with.  They can contain preservatives as well.  Having to eat a dessert each time you want a healthy tart cherry snack simply doesn’t make sense.  The time involved with making it from scratch doesn’t exactly fit most individuals’ busy schedules either. 

A lot of tart cherry drinks are made from juice concentrate.  They also may contain preservatives so that they have a better shelf life, thus allowing them to be stocked and sold in stores.  Once again, drinks like this lose their nutritional value.  A good tart cherry juice drink is one that is similar to an all natural apple or grape juice that boasts the 100% juice label.  Granted, you are probably thinking that a 100% tart cherry juice drink might be tough to stomach.  There is one tart cherry juice drink that covers all of the bases.

CherryPharm is a tart cherry juice drink that is made from 100% all natural whole tart cherries.  The juice extraction process they use was developed in labs at Cornell University in order to retain the maximum amount of nutrients as possible.  Two of the three varieties of CherryPharm contain the juice of at least 50 whole tart cherries.  These two drinks (Natural Health and Natural Recovery) are best consumed in pairs before and after a workout so that the body experiences an increase in blood flow and the muscles suffer less pain and swelling and ultimately experience a faster recovery.  Natural Health boasts all of the clinical benefits of the nutrients in tart cherries with a splash of the flavor from apple juice to give the drink a good taste.  It is best consumed when you wake up or before a workout.  Natural Recovery contains protein and is best consumed within a half hour to an hour right after a workout.  The third drink is called Natural Fruit and uses 100% juice from approximately 35 whole tart cherries and is mixed with the flavors of apple juice and grape juice to become a great tasting juice that is best consumed whenever an individual craves it.

Without the preservatives, the bio-active compounds in all natural juice drinks start to break down over time.  Therefore, they have a relatively short shelf life.  In order to remedy this situation, CherryPharm is available only in local stores where the juice is made so that it can be delivered and stocked as the store sells them.  Otherwise, it must be purchased online where the juice is bottled and shipped as ordered.

The effects of tart cherries are best realized over time.  Just as your body responds to intense workouts over time, you body also responds to new resources in your body over time.  The more you consume tart cherries, the more you will start to notice the effects of them.  If you were to experience an injury, the recovery time can be long.  If you had been consuming the nutrients in tart cherries regularly, the bio-active compounds (anthocyanins) would work to inhibit inflammation, much like putting ice on a bruise immediately after it happens to minimize the effect.  Since they were being protected from strain before the injury occurred, the recovery time is reduced further.

Research and clinical studies suggest that consumption of tart cherries (Flavanols, flavonols, vitamins, minerals, terpenes) will allow your workout to be more effective by increasing blood flow to more parts of the body.  The best part is that the workout will be more effective but you will find that you feel less pain and that your muscles recover faster.  Your activity level throughout the day (especially after an intense workout) will not suffer as a result.  When the day is over, you will benefit from improved sleep habits so that the next day you will be ready to go again.  All the while, evidence suggests that your risk of developing chronic disease will reduce as a result of the powerful antioxidants (phenolic acids) in tart cherries that prevent instances of oxidative stress.

Ultimately, consumption of tart cherries is clinically proven to reduce strength loss, protect muscles, lessen pain, speed recovery, improve sleep habits, and increase wellness.  For more information on the health benefits of tart cherries and CherryPharm tart cherry juice, please visit cherrypharm.com.

Written by Matt Kerwin for CherryPharm