Cherries still missing from the sports nutrition market

On the sports nutrition front, cherries and cherry products may have an application in speeding up post-exercise recovery and improving performance. The American College of Sports Medicine published an article in August 2011 in its journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise which suggested that cherry juice was able to reduce muscle damage caused by intensive strength exercise. The researchers stipulated that this effect was due to cherry juice's high antioxidant content attenuating the oxidative damage caused by this type of exercise.

At present, cherry ingredients are not commonly employed as functional ingredients by mainstream sports product manufacturers. For example, GlaxoSmithKline's Lucozade branded sports drinks, despite offering cherry flavour varieties, makes nothing of cherries' potential in the realm of post-exercise muscle recovery. Lucozade Sport Lite Cherry, launched in the UK in August 2011, only contains cherry flavouring, as does Lucozade Body Fuel Drink Cherry.

Cherry juice positioned as a functional product is being left to specialist producers. UK-based CherryActive, founded in 2005, for instance, offers CherryActive Concentrate made from Montmorency cherry juice, available bottled or in pouches. The product is primarily positioned at the sports nutrition market, although the company makes reference to joint health, sleep and other antioxidant-related health benefits. In addition to juice, CherryActive also offers freeze-dried powdered cherries in capsules and dried Montmorency cherries for snacking.

In the future, we should start to see more mainstream products in the sports drinks arena, such as, for example, sports drinks employing a significant proportion of cherry juice in order to appeal to people seeking sports drinks with a more natural positioning. Protein shakes with added cherry powder (from freeze-dried cherries) and snack bars with dried cherries and/or cherry powder are also likely to appeal to consumers interested in sports nutrition products.

Five easy ways to add Tart Cherries to your routine

Here's five easy way to add delicious Tart Cherries to your everyday routine.

Thanks to everyone who visited us at the Virgin London Marathon

More and more people have asked us about Cherry Juice and its virtues. We had 600 leaflets printed by Northumbria University Life Sciences. They went literally within the first few hours. So if anyone wants to check out the research you can find a link here. If it’s a bit too scientific visit www.choosecherries.co.uk for information on tart cherries.

The Choose Cherries stand was inundated with sampling requests during the 3 day event at London Excel as over 22,000 people sampled our tart cherry juice and wanted to know more about the benefits of tart cherries. We’ve obviously known about the benefits of this fruit for years but it’s good to know that the appetite for more information is increasing. Of course recent research helps the cause as it were.

Wow, what a fantastic response

What a fantastic response we have at the Excel Centre in London for the pre Virgin London Marathon Exhibition. During the four days over 22,000 samples of delicious tart cherry juice handed out to the general public and runners by our hand working stand staff.

Virgin London Marathon - Day 2!

Well it was a really eventful first day at the Virgin London Marathon exhibition with people from all over the world getting ready for Sunday’s race. Men and Women, Boys and girls, young and old, they were all represented and our stand at Choose Cherries was inundated with sampling requests as more people become aware of the benefits of drinking cherry juice and tart cherries in general. 

The race on Sunday is one of the world’s premier Marathon events and whilst international athletes will compete for the prestige of winning such a race, and the prizes on offer, many many more will smply be looking to prove a lot of personal points. Some are runninng in memory of a loved one, whilst others are using the race as a showcase for charity and are major fundraising opportunities.

Today - Friday - has been busier than yesterday and you can feel the buzz as the race looms ever closer!

The Virgin London Marathon is almost here….

Wheelchair racing star David Weir and former boxer Michael Watson will open the Virgin London Marathon Expo at London Dockland’s Excel Exhibition Centre at 11am on Wednesday 18 April.
 
Held every year at Excel in London's Docklands throughout the registration process, the biggest and best venue in the country, the show attracts 70,000 visitors over its 4 open days. With 15000 visitors on the week days and 25000 on Saturday you may want to consider visiting in the week to avoid the rush on Saturday. Around 37,000 runners are expected to visit the Excel Exhibition Centre to register for the 2012 Virgin London Marathon before it closes at 5pm on Saturday.
 
Come and visit Choose Cherries us at the Virgin London Marathon Exhibition which is being held at the Excel Centre in London Docklands.

Public Opening Times

• Wednesday 18 April 2012 11am until 8pm
• Thursday 19 April 2012 10am until 8pm
• Friday 20 April 2012 10am until 8pm
• Saturday 21 April 2012   9am until 5pm

We look forward to seeing you there

Choose Cherries at the Brighton Marathon

Choose Cherries had a fantastic show at the Brighton Marathon Exhibition introducing Cherries to a whole new audience who simply weren’t aware of how good this fruit is for you in many ways.

Brighton Marathon

Well the Brighton Marathon has been and gone and what an event it was. The winner of the race was Peter Some of Kenya who set a new course record knocking more than four minutes off his old time, finishing the race in 2:12:01.

This year there was a new two-day format at the exhibition and it is believed that over 20,000 passed through the doors of the Brighton Centre to visit over 110 stands The exhibition was a showcase for running companies and brands specialising in running-related activities, as well as Marathon targeted nutrition which is why Choose Cherries decided to showcase its products and sample cherry juice. We had a very positive reception and interest in the great qualities that cherries possess.

These benefits include:

• Reduce post-exercise muscle and joint pain.
• Packed with powerful-antioxidants.
• A natural anti-inflammatory.
• Can help with the symptoms of gout and arthritus.
• Natural cardiovascular benefits.

So you can get a feel of how the exhibition went and details of our stand so that you can visit us at the upcoming London Marathon Exhibition at The Exel Exhibition Centre from Wednesday 18th to Saturday 21st April.

Help us to help you and have the chance to win some great prizes

Why not visit our new www.choosecherries.co.uk website for a chance to win some fantastic prizes. It's free to enter so what are you waiting for!

The website features some fantastic recipies for you to try, including:
Red Recharge Smoothie

Healthy Heart Pancakes and Cherry Sauce

Cherry Whole Grain Cereal Bar

While you are entering the competition you can 'help us to help you' by answer some simple questions. This will assist Dr. Glyn Howatson in his research into the awareness and benefits of Tart Cherries.

Sleeping pills are not the answer

Insomnia is a prominent health issue.

Euromonitor International's consumer health data show that calming and sleeping products were the eighth most popular type of over the counter medication purchased in 2011 at a global level.

In February 2012, the prestigious British Medical Journal (BMJ) published a study which is bound to send droves of consumers searching for natural alternatives to hypnotics, the medical term for prescription sleeping pills.

Cherries and cherry products could well play a part in satisfying the growing need for natural sleeping aids. In August 2011, the European Journal of Nutrition published another piece of research backing up cherries' sleep-enhancing properties. Tart cherries, like the Montmorency variety used in this study, contain high levels of melatonin, a substance intricately involved in the regulation of human sleep patterns. The researchers concluded that the ingestion of tart cherry juice concentrate did indeed improve sleep duration and quality in healthy men and women.

The Power of RED

The Health Benefits of Tart Cherries

Gout & Arthritus:

For decades arthritis and gout sufferers have regularly consumed tart cherry juice for relief of symptoms. As early as the 1950’s, the science began to support this long-held tradition, linking cherry consumption to less pain associated with gout attacks.

Cardiovascular & Heart Health:

Tart cherry consumption has been linked to a number of cardiovascular benefits — from overall anti-inflammation to reductions in cholesterol levels, to decreased risk for atherosclerosis and metabolic syndrome — all important heart disease risk factors.

The anthocyanins in tart cherries may also lower blood lipid levels. In an animal study, rats who were fed tart cherry-enriched diets for 90 days demonstrated significantly lower plasma triglyceride and total cholesterol, fasting glucose and insulin, and a plasma marker of oxidative damage.They also had slightly higher high-density lipoproteins (HDL – the "good" cholesterol) and significantly elevated blood antioxidant capacity.

Exercise Recovery & Pain Relief:

The same RED compounds linked to cherries’ arthritis and cardiovascular benefits have now shown promise for athletes and sports recovery to help relieve muscle and joint soreness. Tart cherries could help athletes reduce muscle damage to recover faster from a tough workout, according to a growing body of research

Emerging Benefits:

Researchers continue to uncover new and novel benefits of tart cherries. Some preliminary research has linked tart cherry juice to improvements in sleep and sleep patterns.

In one pilot study, a team of University of Pennsylvania, University of Rochester and VA Center of Canandaigua researchers found that drinking tart cherry juice daily helped reduce the severity of insomnia and time spent awake after going to sleep. The 15 older adults saved about 17 minutes of wake time after going to sleep, on average, when drinking cherry juice daily, compared to when they were drinking the juice drink.57 A second study found that healthy adults experienced improved sleep time and a 5-6 percent increase in overall sleep efficiency after drinking two servings of tart cherry juice for a week, compared to drinking a fruit cocktail. The volunteers also reported less daytime napping time while drinking the tart cherry juice.

For further details and to read the full Red Report, please click here

Antioxidants and beyond…

As already alluded to, cherries are high in antioxidants. This goes particularly for tart cherries (also often referred to as “sour” cherries). Contrary to what one might expect, tart cherries have the same natural sugar content as sweet cherries but contain more sour and bitter tasting phytochemicals – the very substances which afford them their antioxidant prowess.

In recent years, several pieces of research have emerged which indicate that cherries may hold promise for three further – and potentially very popular – health and wellness applications. They may provide relief from pain and inflammation, act as a sleep aid and become a rising star in the area of sports nutrition.

You can read the full article here

Dr.Glyn Howatson joins the UK Tart Cherries Research Team

Dr. Glyn Howatson joins our research team.

Choose Cherries (UK) are very proud to announce that Dr. Glyn Howatson, PhD, ASCC, FHEA, FACSM of Northumbria University has joined our research team. Dr. Howatson is the Laboratory Director in the School of Life Sciences at Northumbria University.

Dr. Howatson, found that athletes who drank tart cherry juice recovered faster after marathon running than a placebo-controlled group.

Inflammation and oxidative stress caused by the Marathon race was also reduced in the cherry juice group.

His study concluded that cherry juice aided recovery following the marathon by increasing to antioxidative capacity, reducing inflammation and oxidative stress, hence aiding the recovery of muscle function.