Cherry Juice Me!

     Is cherry juice the ultimate antioxidant drink? Recently since the Olympics much has been made of the benefits of cherry juice, because some athletes have been taking it. Cherry juice contains a lot of important molecules that are linked to preventing certain types of cancer, heart attack, and stroke. It has also been theorized that cherry juice is a natural anti-inflammatory, tart cherries specifically can use to help relieve the pain and inflammation of arthritis, gout, muscle pain, and back pain.

     It has been shown that taking cherry before and after a strenuous workout can help with post-work out muscle pain. In another study it is been shown that one serving of cherry juice or fresh cherries can help decrease the blood urea levels as much as 15% in women. High uric acid levels have been linked to gout which is a disease where the uric acid crystals form in the joints, usually in the foot, which is very painful.

     Antioxidants are very important in our daily health regimen if we do not have foods and our own body to combat free radicals we will be nothing more than host to cancers. Antioxidants go against free radicals by accepting an electron, a free radical is basically an electron that's traveling throughout the body and what it wants to do is steal an electron from other molecules that are stable such as DNA and proteins, by taking in antioxidants in fruits, vegetables, and other foods they're basically donating that electron so it can be stolen so it's no stolen from somewhere else. Specifically in cherry juice the name of the antioxidant is anthocyanins which gives cherry that rich red color.

     There are two types of cherries, there are the tart cherries and sweet cherries both have beneficial effects, it has been shown that tart cherries have higher concentrations of the antioxidants but sweet cherries will suffice and give you some of the needed benefit. One brand of cherry juice I find to be good is Traverse Bay Farms which can be found at the following link http://www.traversebayfarms.com/cherryjuice.htm