Exercise and Performance
Perfect for Sports – Improve Performance and Recovery with New Zealand Cassis
Substantial evidence supports that the consumption of New Zealand Cassis (blackcurrants) facilitates the management of exercise-induced oxidative stress and inflammation and enhances the natural benefits of exercise.
Cassis intervention studies have been undertaken by the New Zealand Plant and Food Research Institute and have shown that New Zealand Cassis should be included in any diet to minimise oxidative stress and inflammation that can be a consequence of an active lifestyle.
Examples of such studies include:
1. Consumption of a single serving of New Zealand Cassis significantly reduced the levels of the oxidative stress biomarkers (protein carbonyls and oxidative capacity) in exercising volunteers.
2. Long term consumption enhances the protective effect of New Zealand Cassis (blackcurrant) against exercise-induced oxidative stress. Oxidative stress was significantly decreased by consuming New Zealand Cassis daily for one week prior to exercising. More interestingly, if New Zealand Cassis was consumed daily for five weeks prior to exercise, then there was an even greater protection against oxidative stress resulting from exercising.
This study supports the need to consume New Zealand Cassis every day in order to protect against the harmful effects of oxidative stress that is a result of an active lifestyle.
3. Exercise-induced muscle damage, as measured by creatine kinase and myoglobin leakage from the muscle cells into the body’s circulation, was less severe and recovery from the damage was significantly quicker in volunteers that had taken a single dose of New Zealand Cassis (blackcurrant). The single dose of New Zealand Cassis reduced muscle damage for up to four days after the exercise.
4. Go faster and further with New Zealand Cassis. Following New Zealand Cassis (blackcurrant) consumption a 2.4 % improvement in volunteer’s running time (for a fixed distance) was reported, and the volunteers could run 11% further.
