Tart cherry juice found to help improve endurance
Whilst research has already shown that using Montmorency US tart cherry juice increases circulating melatonin and provides improvements in sleep time and quality of sleep in healthy adults, a new meta-analysis study has found evidence that it also improves endurance performance.
The traditional ingredient is gaining a growing reputation for being a versatile source of vitamins, copper and flavonoids with extensive research demonstrating the health and well-being benefits that cherries can deliver.
The new meta-analysis study looked at the collective research of 10 previous studies on the use and effect of cherries as a dietary supplement and has been published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition.
The studies collectively included 147 athletes of different ages, all participants being endurance-based athletes.
“The recovery benefits of tart cherry concentrate are well researched, yet evidence on performance enhancement is scarce and results have been mixed,” said co-author Philip Chilibeck, PhD, professor in the College of Kinesiology at the University of Saskatchewan.
“The results of this meta-analysis found tart cherries did help improve performance, and we gained greater insight into the potential mechanism responsible for this benefit.”
After pooling results from the 10 published studies, the meta-analysis concluded that tart cherry concentrate in juice or powdered form significantly improved endurance exercise performance when consumed for seven days to 1.5 hours before running, cycling or swimming.
» References: Effect of Tart Cherry Concentrate on Endurance Exercise Performance: A Meta-analysis, Ruirui Gao & Philip D. Chillibeck. Jan 5, 2020
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