Health

Here are just a few ways Tart Is Smart™ may improve your health:

• Anthocyanins 1,2 and 3 are powerful antioxidants found in Tart Is Smart™. Scientists belive that anthocyanins have the potential to improve joint health.
• Anthocyanins may also protect the artery walls from the damage that leads to plaque build up.
• Tart Is Smart™ has higher levels of melatonin than are normally found in the blood. Melatonin is a powerful antioxidant that attacks free radicals and may improve our health in many ways.
• High levels of melatonin will increase the antioxidant capacity in the body (see below).
• Tart Is Smart™ contains a class of compounds called SOD (super oxide dismutase), which act as super scavengers of dangerous free radicals in the body. These "super-antioxidants" are found in very few natural foods and the human body is often lacking in SOD "super-antioxidants".

Antioxidants - Naturally occurring compounds found in many foods, particularly in fruits and vegetables with deep, dark colors such as red tart cherries. Antioxidants have been extensively studied and found to be helpful in guarding your body against free radicals.

Oxygen, an essential element for life, can create damaging by-products during normal cellular metabolism. Antioxidants counteract these cellular by-products, called free radicals, and bind with them before they can cause damage. If left unchecked, free radicals may cause heart damage, cancer, cataracts, and a weak immune system. Antioxidants work by: binding to the free radicals; transforming them into non-damaging compounds; or repairing cellular damage. Some of the antioxidants that Tart is Smart™ juice contain are melatonin, anthocyanins and SOD (super oxide dismutase).

Anthocyanins - are naturally occurring compounds that give color to fruit, vegetables, and plants. Anthocyanins are the pigments that make blueberries blue, and Montmorency tart cherries red. They are thought to play a major role in the high antioxidant activity levels observed in red and blue fruits and vegetables. Close to 300 anthocyanins have been discovered. In tart cherries, anthocyanins may play an important role in improving joint health.

Natural Cox-2 Enzyme Inhibitors - The anthocyanins found in cherries contain some of the highest levels of Cox-2 inhibitors of any known food. Blocking this enzyme impedes the production of the chemical messengers (prostaglandins) that cause pain and swelling.

Melatonin - is another antioxidant found in Tart is Smart™ tart cherry juice. Within our bodies, melatonin is naturally produced within the pineal gland, a glandular organ nestled between the cerebral hemispheres of the brain. In that gland, melatonin is synthesized in two steps from the precursor neurotransmitter serotonin. Pineal stores of melatonin are typically released into the circulation when illumination diminishes, and may help explain why most of us sleep better when the lights are off. During those morning hours when melatonin levels begin to diminish, birds begin to sing and we also tend to wake up, restored, to start our daily activities. Melatonin performs a remarkable number of beneficial tasks in the body.

More Information - for more information on the health benefits of tart cherries click here to visit the Cherry Marketing Institute's Web site.

The research on the health benefits of cherries is ongoing. There are not answers to all of the questions regarding the use of cherries and cherry products to improve human health. Tart Is Smart™ encourages consumers to consult their physicians before changing treatment regimens.