March 2022 - 35

CHERRY MARKETING INSTITUTE
Tart cherry juice found to improve sleep for athletes
JULIE GORDON
President
Cherry Marketing Institute
www.choosecherries.com
nutrition strategies for sleep, along
with a high glycemic-index (GI)
carbohydrate dinner and whey protein
supplementation before bed.
The interventions using tart cherry
As we start to think about planning
for next fiscal year, we are excited
to get back into funding new health
benefit research. Consumers are
seeking foods that deliver the benefits
normally promoted by over-the-counter
medicines. U.S. Montmorency tart
cherries continue to grow in popularity
with consumer consumption as a result.
Educating consumers all over
the world, building awareness and
alternative ways to incorporate U.S.
Montmorency cherries to aid with
sleep, muscle recovery, inflammation,
heart health obesity, diabetes,
cardiovascular disease and other health
issues remains a key part to our overall
marketing and promotion strategy.
Tart cherry juice has become a
popular sports recovery drink for
professional and collegiate athletes, as
well as weekend warriors and exercise
enthusiasts. Now there's another reason
to make tart cherry juice a part of your
training regimen. The nutrient-dense
juice may help athletes get a better
night's sleep, suggests a new study
published in Nutrients.
The scientific review supported by
the Australian Rugby Foundation and
conducted by a team of researchers
at the University of Canberra in
Australia evaluated multiple nutrition
strategies that can be used to enhance
sleep, including tart cherry juice,
carbohydrates, protein, kiwifruit, beet
juice resulted in a universal increase
across both studies evaluated in the
review, including improvements in total
sleep time (29-39 minutes), modest
improvements in sleep efficiency
(2.7%-3.7%), and slight reductions in
sleep onset latency (4-9 minutes) and
wake after sleep onset (17 minutes). The
tart cherry juice studies were conducted
with the general population, including
both healthy and poor sleepers.
The researchers concluded that
juice, glycine, L-serine and GABA and
an herbal sleep supplement. However,
not all of these produced positive
results.
The 20 studies examined included
athletes, as well as the general
population, due to the limited number
of sleep studies that specifically focused
on athletes. Even though sleep studies
may be limited among athletes, sleep
plays a crucial role in recovery and the
reduction of fatigue-related injuries. In
fact, the researchers say athletes rate
sleep as their most important recovery
strategy.
Team sport athletes often experience
sleep disturbances due to national and
international travel, training schedules,
night-time competitions and muscle
soreness. While it is well established
that nutrition plays a significant role in
performance and recovery, research on
the role of foods and nutrients in the
sleep-wake cycle is in its infancy.
Review of the evidence
In the 20 sleep studies, the nutrition
intervention strategies were evaluated
against four variables:
* Total sleep time: minutes of
night-time sleep.
* Sleep efficiency: the ratio of total
sleep time to time spent in bed.
* Sleep onset latency: the time
between bedtime and sleep onset.
* Wake after sleep onset: the time
awake after initial sleep onset but
before the final awakening.
Tart cherry juice consumption was
found to be one of the most effective
tart cherry juice may be beneficial
to incorporate into an athlete's daily
routine when sleep is impaired,
including about eight ounces on waking
and another eight ounces before the
evening meal. They say the benefits
are likely due to the melatonin content
of tart cherries - approximately 13 ng
melatonin per kg - which helps regulate
the sleep-wake cycle and promotes
consistent, quality rest.
The additional benefit of tart cherry
juice is its role in accelerating the
recovery process and restoring strength
after high-intensity endurance exercise,
they said. Although, " further research
is needed to assess the use of tart
cherry juice in an athletic population,
including its effects on sleep and
physiological recovery, " the researchers
concluded.
Source: Gratwicke M, Miles KH, Pyne
DB, Pumpa KL, Clark B. Nutritional
interventions to improve sleep in
team-sport athletes: A narrative review.
Nutrients. 2021.13:1586. FGN
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March 2022

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