Sitting on grocery store shelves among all of the different varieties of fruit juice is an unassuming nutritional powerhouse: tart cherry juice. It turns out, this beverage is a well-studied supplement teeming with benefits, according to research and sports performance dietitian Susan Kitchen.
Tart cherry juice, which comes from the Montmorency cherries primarily grown in the U.S., is highly concentrated with vitamins, minerals, and beneficial compounds that leave nutrition experts like Kitchen recommending it.
Here is what you should know about tart cherry juice’s benefits, and how much is the ideal amount to drink.
Reduces inflammation
Because tart cherry juice is rich in antioxidants and polyphenols, Kitchen says, that helps to combat free radicals that cause oxidative stress and inflammation in the body. Free radicals can be a natural byproduct of normal metabolism, or they can emerge as a result of consuming ultra-processed foods or from exposure to pollution and chemicals.
Over time, that oxidative stress can lead to systemic inflammation linked to chronic diseases like Type 2 diabetes or heart disease, which is why you want to eat a diet rich in antioxidants, Kitchen says.
A small study from 2019 found that regular tart cherry juice consumption among older adults—68 milliliters of Montmorency tart cherry concentrate diluted with 412 milliliters of water—helped reduce inflammation and even lowered blood pressure and LDL cholesterol, two markers of cardiovascular disease risk.
Promotes muscle recovery and better exercise performance
Reducing inflammation presents another benefit for those who work out regularly, making tart cherry juice a sought-after supplement for many exercise enthusiasts and athletes, according to Kitchen, who specializes in working with endurance athletes (triathletes, runners, cyclists) and everyday fitness enthusiasts.
“It helps with the inflammation and will boost recovery,” Kitchen tells Fortune. “It will help to mitigate the oxidative stress and help the athlete to perform with better muscle function sooner.”
A 2017 review of 11 randomized controlled trials revealed that tart cherry juice may help athletes experience reduced pain and muscle soreness, inflammation and oxidative stress, while promoting quicker recovery to their baseline.
Tart cherry juice can be especially helpful for people participating in tournaments, practices, games, or matches that are close together when the recovery time between is cut short, she adds.
But if you’re looking to reap the exercise-related benefits of tart cherry juice while getting your fitness gains, Kitchen says when you drink it is important. After a hard workout, your body experiences acute inflammation to heal your damaged muscles, and that is a crucial part of the recovery process. While reducing inflammation is largely viewed as ideal, acute inflammation is necessary for the desired adaptations your body makes post-exercise—like building muscle.
“None of the magic happens when you do a hard workout. The magic happens in how you recover,” Kitchen says. When blood flows to those damaged muscles, which have little tears in them from the workout, that helps to build that muscle back stronger, she explains.
Tart cherry juice may disrupt that process, however, if you drink it right away. “If you blunt that response, then you don’t necessarily repair the muscle in the same way that you would if the body were left to its natural process,” Kitchen says.
Because of that, Kitchen advises waiting four to six hours after a workout before you drink tart cherry juice.
Improves sleep quality
You might remember the “sleepy girl mocktail” social media trend, made from tart cherry juice and magnesium that influencers claimed promoted better sleep. It turns out, there is science behind tart cherry juice’s sleep-boosting effects.
Research shows that tart cherry juice can boost melatonin—the sleep hormone—production, leading to better, longer sleep. A 2011 study showed that participants who drank one ounce of tart cherry juice concentrate twice a day for one week had increased melatonin levels as well as increases in overall time in bed, total sleep time, and sleep efficiency.
Kitchen says that because the melatonin-boosting effects peak in the system about one to three hours after drinking, it’s best consumed an hour before bed. She does warn it could potentially make you sleepy if you drink it during the day, so save it for bedtime.
How much tart cherry juice should you drink?
You don’t need to chug a whole glass of tart cherry juice to experience its benefits, Kitchen points out. She recommends one ounce (two tablespoons) of tart cherry juice concentrate mixed in three to six ounces of water per day.
“In that dose you could have 50 to 60 cherries,” Kitchen says.
There could be potential side effects and drug interactions that come with drinking tart cherry juice for some, however, which is why you should consult your doctor before you start drinking it. Tart cherry juice contains salicylates, which have anti-clotting properties similar to blood thinners like warfarin, and taking both could increase risk of bleeding. Additionally, tart cherry juice contains sorbitol, a natural sugar alcohol that may lead to an upset stomach for some people. Those with Type 2 diabetes should also exercise caution, given the natural sugar content in tart cherry juice.
You’ll want to look for products that say unsweetened tart cherry juice concentrate, Kitchen explains, which will be the most nutrient- and antioxidant-dense form. Additionally, she says to make sure you are getting products that are labeled tart cherry (from the Montmorency variety), as opposed to only cherry juice which could come from sweet (Bing) cherries that don’t share the same benefits.
If you want to drink it every day, Kitchen says it won’t hurt, especially since the dose is so small and the nutritional content outweighs any concerns about the sugar content. But it’s important to remember that this one product can’t fix it all, despite its many benefits.
“This is not just one magic thing. If you have muscle soreness that’s chronic that’s not improving over time, you don’t just want to keep trying to decrease that and ignore it,” Kitchen says. “You want to pay attention to your body and not keep trying to medicate it, even if it’s something natural.”
Kitchen also emphasizes that drinking tart cherry juice won’t mitigate a poor diet and other unhealthy habits, which is why it should be used in conjunction with a diet that’s already high in other antioxidant-rich foods like berries, leafy greens, coffee, nuts, and seeds.
For more on superfoods:
- An expert says don’t waste your money on beetroot supplements—try this instead
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- Meet the hot new superfood—dark green algae powder that’s full of vitamins, minerals, protein, and omega-3s
- Chia seeds are a superfood that could help combat world hunger and climate change, researchers say
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com