Food First: Tart Cherry

by GRP dietician Megan Chacosky

The end of June marks the beginning of the summer nutrition blog series, “Food First”: a 3-month highlight of natural, seasonal foods sources that pack a major nutritional punch. While many sport specific products like bars, ready-to-drink shakes, powders, or other supplements are made very intentionally to help athletes leverage ideal fueling or recovery recommendations in convenient ways, it can also be empowering to learn how to take advantage of fresh food sources for health and performance benefits, and save the sports products for less produce-plentiful months of the year.

Building on last month’s Recovery Nutrition theme, the inaugural “Food First” product is tart cherry. Montmorency cherries are the most popular species in the sport world, known certainly for their tart taste compared to other cherry varieties, but also for their heightened natural profile of antioxidant and anti-inflammatory compounds. The three primary researched benefits of tart cherries include:

For general use in boosting your immune system and aiding recovery throughout training or racing phases, tart cherries (fresh or frozen) can be worked into weekly meals or snacks. Some of my favorite recipes include Tart Cherry Compote with whipped cream & shortcakes, Cherry Clafoutis (a classic French custard-cake, which includes milk - another source of tryptophan!), and Chocolate Covered Cherry Smoothies (great post-workout on hot days).

Tart cherries typically have a slightly shorter growing season than their sweeter counterparts, so if you’re not able to get your hands on some fresh cherries (or are interested in using tart cherries year-round for recovery), there are a number of high quality tart cherry juice or tart cherry concentrate options. Check out the Supplements for Sport: Tart Cherry infographic for a focused recap of hows, whats, and whys of tart cherry use, plus some links to resources, including GRP’s own tart cherry sponsor product, JuicePerformer.