Monday, June 8, 2009

Tart Cherries

Do you have arthritis? Knee pain? Are you an athlete? Do you sometimes get sore after working out?

What causes this soreness? When we strip away all the context, all the issues listed are about inflammation in the joints and in the tissues. You've traumatized your tissues--either passively or actively!

What do you do about it? There are many suggestions...glucosamine, ibuprofen, MSM (one of my personal favorites), and/or tart cherry juice.

Tart cherry juice is an awesome anti-inflammatory. I heard about it a couple years ago from someone who has arthritis. It's not a drug, and it doesn't build up in your system (so if you drink it today and not tomorrow you won't feel the benefits tomorrow). Most people buy it in a concentrated form, and it's the texture of syrup so you can keep it in the freezer. It is very tart, so if you like tart things, you may just like to eat it by the spoonful! If you don't, I recommend adding it to apple juice or some other sweeter juice.

Before I posted info about it on here, I wanted to have a significant amount of personal support for the product. So far, I have two people who have consistently used it for arthritis and both swear by it. I have one runner who has developed knee pain recently, and as soon as she began drinking the juice the knee pain went away while running (and comes back if she doesn't drink it). I have another young woman who has knee pain most of the time due to permanent damage from being an athlete when she was younger. She drinks the juice everyday, and says she notices a significant worsening of the pain when she misses a day.

The woman who told me about tart cherry juice bought it from Schutt's Apple Mill (http://www.schuttsapplemill.com/) in Webster in a concentrated form (keep it in the freezer and add a Tbsp to a glass of water). You can also buy it from Wegmans (for about $2 for 8 ounces!). The best source I've found is http://www.singerfarms.com/. They are a farm in Appleton, NY, and they will ship it to you for free! It's a pretty reasonable price, considering you only use 1-2 Tbsp a day.

Have you ever heard of tart cherry juice? Let me know if you try it and how it works for you!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I too am a believer in cherry juice. Its the real thing not a pill. All those supplements out there, you have to wonder. If it is a pill, then forget it. I don't do manufactured pills!