When you exercise, small tears occur in muscle fibers, ultimately leading to late-onset soreness a day or two later. This isn't a bad thing. Unlike the infamous and gravely mistaken fitness maxim "no pain, no gain," -- which used to stress pushing the body to near the point of injury -- soreness is one case when a little discomfort is normal.

Still, normal or not, feeling sore doesn't exactly brighten your day. Thankfully, research out of the University of Vermont suggests that reducing post-workout soreness is as easy as cherry pie.

I know the expression is "easy as apple pie, " but I'm trying to get to the point that tart cherries have pain reducing properties, so work with me here. OK? Cool. As I was saying, tart cherries, when eaten twice a day, can help ease you through discomfort. And, as an added bonus, the anti-inflammatory properties that help with soreness can also help lower your risk of cardiovascular complications.

University of Michigan researchers have found that tiny little tart cherries can have a big impact on heart health and on diabetes. During the study researchers fed some rats a diet that included tart cherries; a control group of rats ate a diet that was equivalent in carbohydrates and calories but contained no cherries. At the end of the study, the rats who ate cherries had improvements in weight, fat percentage, cholesterol, and inflammation. A reduction in these risk factors is good news for heart health and diabetes.

Cherries are a nutritious addition to your diet. They're delicious, easy to snack on, and make a great addition to a lot of recipes. In fact, we've written about the perks of cherries before -- Chris wrote about the anti-inflammatory properties of cherries and they even offer some protection against UV rays. So grab a handful of tart cherries and snack away!

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The tart cherry - natures way of making healthy eating happy eating.

In a test involving lab rats, researchers from the University of Michigan Health System found tart cherries to lower cholesterol, lower blood sugar, lessen the amount of fat storage in the liver, lower oxidative stress, and increase production of a molecule that assists the body in metabolizing fat and sugar.

Antioxidant compounds known as anthocyanins are found in high amounts in tart cherries. Researchers say that a strong correlation appears to exist between the consumption of tart cherries and the clear changes in metabolic measurements such as those listed above.

Unfortunately, this study still remains at the rodent phase; it will take human clinical trials to determine if tart cherries carry similar benefits for us. FYI: U-M researchers already plan to launch a small clinical trial on humans some time in the near future.

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