When I first hooked up with the Tart Cherry people about working with them, I was an occasional binge user of tart cherry juice who had heard it was good for athletes but didn’t really know why. I was a genuine believer that real food has super powers, (Picky Bars, duh) and was interested in promoting a real fruit rather than a supplement company. Cherry Marketing Institute (CMI) sent me the research, I was impressed, and I jumped on board. Almost one year later, I want to share my five takeaways from my experience with tart cherries.
- Taste: They are an acquired taste. A rapid one. Much faster than coffee (18 years), brussel sprouts (24 years), or scotch (30 years + conversion to hipster). The juice isn’t overly sweet and it took about a week to enjoy it and another week to crave it. The dried tart cherries you can get at Trader Joe’s are instantly loveable, even by my 2 year old. Now I crave a glass of juice over ice right before bed, which leads me to #2.
- Sleep: The melatonin effects on sleep are real. Jesse responds to it even better than I do, and as a result has become a nightly tart cherry juice drinker. He’s a lifer now. The past year for me has had a lot of unusual life stressors, (the death of my father, a lingering heel injury I just got resolved this week with surgery), and during particularly terrible times, my insomnia was unavoidable, but when I was in a more normal state, I do feel tart cherry juice had the relaxing effect that the research indicates it does. I would recommend it for the melatonin boost 100% based on Jesse’s experience.
- Recovery: As a way to boost recovery, my experience lined up with the research. I would recommend daily tart cherry juice for people during their training cycle, especially for people doing longer distance preparation for marathons and half marathons. Inflammation is what makes you feel like doo doo, and tart cherry juice helps reduce that, especially when taken beforehand. It’s recovery by way of pre-covery.
- Snacking: Dried tart cherries are an amazing distraction for hungry, misbehaving toddlers. Plus they are the single best condiment for oatmeal, followed closely by sliced roasted almonds. They pack a lot of flavor without being insanely sweet, so a handful as a snack is more satiating than other dried fruit.
- More Please: I’m going to keep it rolling in a way that works for me, because it’s easy and it works. I’m not great at developing obsessive lifestyle habits. I don’t take vitamins unless I have a deficiency, and even then I have trouble remembering to take them. But I genuinely enjoy drinking tart cherry juice before bed, so it’s easy to do. And I’ll keep eating them as snacks and on my oatmeal because they taste good. In that way I’ll keep getting my recommended two servings a day, helping me with recovery from surgery and return to healthy competition.
For those of you who are interested, check out choosecherries.com to learn more about this under-appreciated fruit grown mostly in the fine state of Michigan. There are recipes for the foodies, research for the science nerds, and lots of inspiration to #GoTart.
Thanks for the support this year, CMI!
XO
Lauren
My husband was on a tart cherry kick for awhile.
I need to use more of it for anti-inflammatory reasons…
Totally agree with your review on this…Your first post about this turned me on to tart cherry juice several months ago – and I have noticed a major improvement in my sleep. I used to wake up a lot during the night due to noises (man snores and the dog wandering) and couldn’t fall back asleep easily. I drink tart cherry juice 1-2x per day and none of that bothers me anymore, I fall asleep quickly and generally stay asleep all night. I’m not a big supplement gal, but I can’t live without my tart cherry juice. I told mom about it and since she lives near Montmorency county in Michigan, she’s at the source! About quarterly she’ll get me a monster bag of dried cherries to snack on and they are awesome.
LOL “man snores” ! Love it!
Hmmm, wondering if my picky four year old will enjoy those dried tart cherries I always see at TJ’s … thanks for the recommendation.
Looove cherries in all forms! If you love tart like I do, cherry lemonade is yummy. I will sometimes mix the cherry juice with sparkling water (plain or lemon-lime) for a fizzy mock-tail. My 6 year old niece and I like ours in champagne flutes thank you very much!
I also enjoy my bedtime glass of cherry juice.
I used to work in an outpatient cancer clinic when I learned about the amazing benefits of tart cherries. One of the nutritionists shared that her triathlete husband took NSAIDs daily until he was able to wean himself off them by introducing tart cherry juice. Another co-worker shared that her husband’s restless leg syndrome went away after taking a straight shot of tart cherry concentrate before bed every night. My husband, 3-year old, and I have enjoyed this juice at night for years and shared it with many friends and family. While I was pregnant, it was my go-to mocktail. We buy the organic concentrate (dynamic) online and can’t live without it! It’s the closest thing to a cure-all that I’m aware of! So glad it’s helping your family, too!
I’m an avid consumer of tart cherry concentrate. I haven’t been able to say conclusively if it “works” or not, but I continue to drink it based on the research. I often add it to plain sparkling water and pretend it’s a cocktail. Actually, I’ve also had it with vodka for a real cocktail…
Same!
Thanks for sharing! I have been enjoying tart cherry juice (either in smoothies or plain, cut with a little water usually) almost daily for a few months now myself to aid with a semi recent Crohn’s diagnosis (aka massive GI inflammation). I am also an avid runner, so I thought it couldn’t hurt with muscle recovery as well. I did not realize the melatonin effects tart cherry juice also has, so I will start trying it before bed.
Two semi related questions–do you frequently drink much caffeine and/or do you ice bath?
I’m not so sure about the veracity of tart cherry’s “superfood” claims, but I love the taste of them and that’s all that matters to me 🙂
Thanks for the tips! This sounds like a great thing to drink before bed at night. I dont struggle with sleep often, but when I do, I hate it! I am going to remember this when the time comes!
OK I’m thinking tart cherry juice definitely needs to be a part of my next half marathon training cycle! I first learned about it like 2 years ago at a fitness blogging conference but I kind of blew it off. Now hearing your experience I’m kind of convinced it’s a must for recovery! Thanks for sharing 🙂