Macaroni Day 🍜 July 7 #foodholiday #macaroni

Ceviche Day 🍽️ June 28 #foodholiday

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie Day 🥧 June 9 #foodholiday #rhubarb #pie

Blueberry Cheesecake Day 🫐 May 26 #foodholiday #dessert #cheesecake

Strawberries and Cream Day 🍓May 21 #foodholiday #strawberries

Can't Sleep? Drink Tart Cherry Juice

Drinking tart cherry juice daily could help reduce the severity of insomnia and time spent awake after going to sleep, according to a study published in the Journal of Medicinal Food.

A team of University of Pennsylvania, University of Rochester and VA Center of Canandaigua researchers conducted a pilot study on the sleep habits of 15 older adults. The adults drank 8 ounces of tart cherry juice beverage in the morning and evening for 2 weeks, and a comparable matched juice drink, with no tart cherry juice, for another 2 week period. There were significant reductions in reported insomnia severity and the adults saved about 17 minutes of wake time after going to sleep, on average, when drinking cherry juice daily, compared to when they were drinking the juice drink.

Ongoing sleep issues plague more than 40 million adults and another 20 million experience occasional sleep disruptions, putting their health and wellbeing at risk, and leaving many Americans on a quest for sleep solutions, according to the National Institutes of Health. Americans spend more than $84 million on over-the-counter sleep aids each year.

The researchers suspect tart cherries' natural benefits could be due in part to their relatively high content of melatonin – a natural antioxidant in cherries with established ability to help moderate the body's sleep-wake cycle. Produced naturally by the body in small amounts, melatonin plays a role in inducing sleepiness at night and wakefulness during the day.

One of the world's leading authorities on melatonin, Dr. Russel J. Reiter, says while melatonin supplement pills have been heavily promoted as a sleep aid, foods such as cherries – available year-round as dried, frozen and juice – may be a better alternative for boosting the body's own supply of melatonin: "When consumed regularly, tart cherries may help regulate the body's natural sleep cycle and increase sleep efficiency, including decreasing the time it takes to fall asleep. And, because cherries are so rich in other antioxidants, such as anthocyanins, you get other important health benefits."

Health and Beauty

Juice

Specialty Foods and Beverages

sources:
The Cherry Marketing Institute

Pigeon WR, Carr M, Gorman C, Perlis ML. Effects of tart cherry juice beverage on the sleep of older adults with insomnia: a pilot study. Journal of Medicinal Food. 2010;13:579-583.

Hossain JL, Shapiro CM. The prevalence, cost implications, and management of sleep disorders: an overview. Sleep and Breathing. 2002;6:85-102.

What is the Sirtfood Diet?

Popularized by celebrities like Adele who have reportedly used it to lose weight, the Sirtfood Diet relies on foods like kale, celery, buckwheat and lean meats to "actvate sirtuins and switch on the so-called 'skinny gene' pathways in  the body," according to the Sirtfood Diet website.

The Sirtfood program combines intermittent fasting with a juice diet that allows dark chocolate, garlic, walnuts and wine while turning away processed foods, sugar and sodas.

Bites
Health and Beauty
The Sirtfood Diet