The Amazing Health Benefits of Montmorency Tart Cherries

Montmorency Tart Cherries mainly benefit and improve two main areas: muscle recovery and sleep. Some athletes do already know the benefits of this product regarding sport endurance as most have been advised by coaches to include the fruit into their diets. However, not everybody is aware of the health benefits.

For athlete’s, recovery is the most important thing, so by maximising muscle improvements it gives them more potential to maintain good physical health whilst training. 

It is also important to recover through sleep. If athletes do not achieve enough sleep, there will be a significant difference to not only their mental recovery but also physical recovery, which could cost you crossing that finish line first. 

Montmorency Tart Cherries are closely related to the sweet cherry you would find in your supermarket, but the Tart Cherry is very different. They are more acidic and have greater nutritional benefits. Almost all Tart Cherries are grown in the U.S and harvested in the summer months. (You probably won’t come across them fresh unless you live in one of the growing regions.) However, the cherries are available all year round, dried, frozen or juiced. Montmorency cherries have a unique sour-sweet flavour that is increasing in popularity, for both the flavour and the amazing health benefits.

The cherries contain high levels of substances known as Polyphenols - Polyphenols are abundant micronutrients in our diet, and evidence for their role in the prevention of degenerative diseases such as cancer and cardiovascular diseases is emerging. These include flavonoids and anthocyanins, which are known to have anti-oxidants and anti-inflammatory effects. With recent studies it has been proven that Tart Cherry Juice prevents symptoms of exercise induced muscle damage.  Strength loss and pain were also improved after consuming the cherries.

A research study involved an experiment of an athlete training intensely for a week by running every day and doing several additional work outs. He drank one tablespoon of Tart Cherries concentrate twice a day, once in the morning and once immediately post-run. The aim of the experiment was to put himself through a training week that would normally create soreness and a lot of fatigue.

After the experiment he stated – “I never felt any muscle soreness. Not once.” And also “The big surprise: a nagging shoulder injury I’ve had for months improved dramatically, and last Thursday night was the first night in a long time that I slept through the night without any shoulder pain whatsoever.”

He claimed that the cherries helped his soreness with an on-going health issue, but also he slept through the night, something that a lot of people struggle with. This could be due to the fact he had no pain from his workouts so his sleep was undisrupted, or that the melatonin levels benefited his sleep wake cycles making him sleep through. You can read more on the experiment here –http://www.nomeatathlete.com/tart-cherries-results/

Sleep is something that is crucial to athletes and their recovery. The cherries naturally produce high levels of melatonin, which is a hormone made by the pineal gland (a small gland in the brain), melatonin helps control your sleep and wake cycles.

Our body has an internal clock that controls your natural cycle of sleeping and waking hours. In part, your body clock controls how much melatonin your body makes. Normally, melatonin levels begin to rise in the mid- to late evening, remain high for most of the night, and then drop in the early morning hours.

Light affects how much melatonin your body produces. During the shorter days of the winter months, your body may produce melatonin either earlier or later in the day than usual. This change can lead to symptoms of seasonal affective disorder (SAD), or winter depression. Natural melatonin levels slowly drop with age. So making sure you get melatonin into your system is important.

Including the cherries into your daily diet might sound easy, but it is incredibly hard to get your hands on them. If you are lucky enough to live in the regions that grow the cherries, then there are hundreds of ways to pack them into your diet. From baking pies to adding them to your fresh smoothies and juices. 

But for those who may struggle to find fresh cherries, Performance Lab have a great alternative. Their Sleep supplement supplies natural low-dose melatonin from CherryPURE® Montmorency Tart Cherry. With additional joint- and muscle-soothing antioxidants, CherryPURE® promotes deep sleep better than any synthetic melatonin can.