Drinking cherry juice is said to have many advantages. Weight reduction, decreased aggravation, better rest, further developed heart wellbeing the rundown goes on.
While there is science supporting these cases, not every last bit of it is persuading. Regardless, the cancer prevention agents in cherries truly do seem to have calming, wellbeing advancing properties.
Be that as it may, stop and think for a minute. Cherry juice (even tart cherry juice) is somewhat high in sugar. In the event that you're on a keto diet, drinking this natural product juice could undoubtedly crash your keto-related objectives.
All in all, what are these medical advantages of cherry juice? Are there keto-accommodating options in contrast to cherry juice? Also, assuming you totally need cherries in your eating regimen, how could you consume them? Peruse on to find out.
What is Cherry Juice?
Cherry juice is a fruit juice made from cherries. It can be made by mixing cherry concentrate with water. Cherry juice is often made from tart or sour cherries, such as Montmorency cherries, or sweeter black cherries. Tart cherry juice is more sour than black cherry juice.
Most people tend to serve sweet cherries fresh, and consume tart cherries in juices, freeze-dried mixtures, or frozen blends. Tart cherry juice, in fact, has generated a lot of interest in recent years. Researchers have discovered a number of health benefits related to tart cherry consumption, mostly due to their high antioxidant content.
Antioxidants In Cherries
To understand why eating cherries has health benefits, it’s important to understand a thing or two about antioxidants. (More specifically, a subcategory of antioxidants called polyphenols.
You’ve probably heard the advice “eat the rainbow. The rainbow refers to colorful plant compounds reds, yellows, blues, greens, purples, and oranges that offer health benefits to the animals that eat them.
These compounds are broadly known as polyphenolic compounds or polyphenols for short. Resveratrol from grapes is a polyphenol. Oleuropein from olive oil is a polyphenol. Tannins from coffee and tea are polyphenols.
Tart cherries are extremely rich in polyphenols. Some of these polyphenols include: anthocyanins, quercetin, kaempferol, isorhamnetin, neochlorogenic acid, chlorogenic acid, and p-coumaric acid.
Cherry Juice Nutrition Facts
If you’re tracking your daily macronutrients and micronutrients, good for you. It’s important to know what you’re putting in your body. With that in mind, here’s the nutritional profile of 1 cup of tart cherry juice (not sweet cherry juice), straight from the USDA database.
As you can see, tart cherry juice (like most fruit juices) is high-carb, with most of those carbs coming from sugar. Also, since you’re talking about juice (not whole fruit), there isn’t any blood sugar-stabilizing fiber on the label.
5 Benefits of Cherry Juice + Keto-Friendly Swaps
Cherry juice isn’t keto, but researchers have nonetheless found health benefits from controlled supplementation. Tart cherries are high in sugar yes but they’re also high in polyphenols.
Fortunately, cherries aren’t the only dietary source of polyphenols. Nature in Her infinite wisdom has given us a broad spectrum of antioxidant-rich foods to choose from, many of them keto-friendly. Keep reading.
1: Cherry Juice for Weight Loss
The only evidence that cherry juice stimulates fat loss comes from a 2009 study on rats. In that study, researchers fed obese Zucker rats tart cherries for 90 days. (Zucker rats, by the way, are especially prone to getting fat).
The researchers hypothesized that anthocyanins, a class of polyphenol found in tart cherries, would decrease oxidative stress and improve Zucker rat metabolism. As expected, after 90 days the tart cherry rats had less belly fat, less inflammation, and better metabolic gene expression.
Does this apply to humans? Hard to say. These Zucker rats were extremely unhealthy to begin with, and it’s possible that any antioxidant-rich food would have helped them lose abdominal fat.
2: Cherry Juice for Better Sleep
A few small studies have shown that drinking tart cherry juice improves sleep. How? Probably because tart cherries may contain melatonin, your sleep hormone.
In one double-blind controlled trial, researchers gave 20 volunteers either placebo or tart cherry juice concentrate, then measured sleep with questionnaires and actigraphy. (Actigraphy is a somewhat unreliable way to record sleep stages).
3: Cherry Juice for Heart Health
Heart disease involves a number of biochemical processes, including blood lipids, inflammation, oxidative stress, high blood pressure, and a host of other factors. Antioxidant-rich berries, like tart cherry, may improve these markers in certain populations.
Researchers have show that 12 weeks of tart cherry supplementation lowers blood pressure and LDL cholesterol levels in older adults. These same researchers also showed that the same supplementation program lowers levels of c-reactive-protein (CRP) and oxidized LDL both strongly linked to higher risk of atherosclerosis (heart disease.
4: Cherry Juice for Gout
Gout is a form of arthritis driven by high levels of uric acid in the blood. Tart cherries, it’s been shown, can reduce uric acid levels and may reduce the risk of gout attack. Researchers believe this effect is partially driven by cyanidin, a purple polyphenol found in tart cherries.
One study showed that tart cherry juice supplementation reduced both uric acid and CRP (a marker of inflammation), while another found that sweet cherries reduced plasma urate (a form of uric acid) in healthy women aged 22-40[*][*]. Both findings suggest you can reduce your risk of gout with cherry consumption.
Observational studies support this theory. For instance, a group of researchers tracked 633 people over a year and found that cherry intake is associated with a lower risk of gout attacks.
5: Cherry Juice for Potassium
Recall that 1 cup of cherry juice contains 433 milligrams of potassium. The potassium RDA for males and females 19 and older is 3400 and 2600 milligrams, respectively. Cherry juice, it’s clear, is a potassium-rich food.
Frequently Asked Questions!
Does tart cherry make you lose weight?
Tart cherry juice consumption has no significant effect on BW, BMI, and PBF. Despite claims from some studies that cherries are high in fiber, diets high in fiber are linked to weight loss. In this way, fiber-rich foods increase satiety and help reduce overeating 2024.
What is better tart cherry juice or pills?
In quality products, both tart cherry juice and tart cherry capsules will produce similar results. The biggest difference between tart cherry juice vs capsules is the amount of sugar/liquid/energy that products contain.
Is tart cherry safe for liver?
Are cherries good for your liver? The answer may surprise you! Studies have proven that cherries are full of polyphenols and Vitamin C, which can help in reducing inflammation across the body. These antioxidants can protect you from a variety of diseases, including nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.
Is there a difference between cherry juice and tart cherry juice?
The two types of juice are nutritionally different in some ways, but both offer health benefits from their antioxidant properties. Tart cherries have significantly more phenolic compounds than black cherry juice, and black cherries have a higher amount of anthocyanin, per March 2018 research in Nutrients.