Can chokeberry and tart cherry juice prevent or reduce cellulite?

Chokeberries, sour cherries and cellulite

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• Polyphenols are the most important anti-cellulite nutrients one can consume

• As polyphenol-rich foods, chokeberries and tart cherries, are great for cellulite, circulation, skin health and whole body health

• Polyphenols, chokeberries and tart cherries do help prevent / reduce cellulite - but don’t expect miracles

• Do you remember the acai craze?

• Have a skin tightening/cellulite treatment in London with the experts

• Advanced, infrared / blue / red light therapy treatments in London at LipoTherapeia

• The Cellulite School™: Get advanced training in cellulite reduction and skin tightening

Polyphenols are the most important anti-cellulite nutrients one can consume

The plant chemicals ‘polyphenols’ are important in maintaining skin and blood vessel integrity, as well as in inhibiting fat accumulation. As such, they are important anti-cellulite agents.

Polyphenols are mainly found in red, yellow, purple, blue and black berries and other plants (e.g. blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, black rice, black beans, adzuki beans, purple potatoes, purple broccoli, purple carrots etc).

Tart/sour cherries (Prunus cerasus) and chokeberries (Aronia prunifolia, Aronia melanocarpa, Aronia arbutifolia) are both known to be rich in polyphenols.

Together with the other berries and foods mentioned above, all rich in polyphenols, as well as omega-3s, protein and fibre can form the basis of an anti-cellulite diet.

Supplements rich in polyphenols can also contribute towards this goal.

In these two studies scientists have examined the effects of polyphenols found in tart cherries and chokeberries on cellulite, in women with mild to moderate cellulite.

Both studies found that:

• The cherry/chokeberry juice-based supplement reduced hypodermal adipose tissue (cellulite fat) thickness and subcutaneous adipose tissue thickness (deep fat or storage fat). This indicates less cellulite and less deep fat.

• The length of the ‘cellulite fascicles’ (also known as skin ligaments, “cellulite septa”, retinaculae cutis, cellulite collagen bands etc) was also reduced, indicating less cellulite

• Subjects suffering from edema (water retention) at the beginning of the study were found to no longer suffer from edema by the end of the study. Blood circulation was also found to be improved.

As polyphenol-rich foods, chokeberries and tart cherries, are great for cellulite, circulation, skin health and whole body health

The takeaway from these studies is that polyphenols, with sour cherry and chokeberry polyphenols in particular, can help prevent and reduce cellulite. These studies are a welcome addition to the thousands of studies on polyphenols which report similar benefits.

However, I would not take seriously the impressive results these studies report, as it is always the case with nutritional supplement studies that results are exaggerated.

This is typically due to design study flaws, intentional or non-intentional bias, lack of randomisation, lack of placebo control, small study size etc. For example, these two studies were small and neither randomised nor placebo controlled.

So, no, I would not expect my edema to disappear or my cellulite retinaculae to shorten by 35% in 32 days just by taking ANY supplement. Real life experience says that this is wishful thinking and science fiction.

Other polyphenol and supplement studies, with similar or higher amounts of the same polyphenols, made similarly impressive claims only for people to be disappointed when they tried those supplements/foods in real life.

Polyphenols, chokeberries and tart cherries do help prevent / reduce cellulite - but don’t expect miracles

So, do polyphenols from chokeberries, tart cherries and other plants help prevent or reduce cellulite?

Absolutely, this has been proven again and again and it makes sense biochemically too. So you should make an aim to consume as many polyphenol-rich, calorie-poor foods as possible, and supplement with concentrated polyphenols too (if in doubt about supplementation due to health problems, please consult your healthcare practitioner).

But do polyphenols, chokeberry juice and tart cherry juice reduce cellulite in such an impressive matter and in such a short period of time (32 days in the study)? No, that has never worked in real life.

So don’t expect miracles and don’t fall for current or future marketing ploys about “amazing transformations” with any supplement, cream or even treatment.

Do you remember the acai craze?

Do you remember that pathetic acai berry juice craze a few years ago, which promised miraculous weight loss of 20kg in 3 weeks and similar nonsense?

Acai berries (Euterpe oleracea) also contain similar amount and types of polyphenols as tart cherries and chokeberries do, and are indeed great for you.

So feel free to drink acai juice or acai extract supplements to your heart’s content. It will indeed make some positive - albeit moderate - difference to your cellulite and circulation. That’s great already.

But no, no one ever lost 20kg or eliminated their cellulite just by drinking acai juice, outside of those BS instagram and web ads (there was no tiktok those days to add to the BS), and don’t expect this to happen to you either.

Sure, people’s health and cellulite have improved by daily consuming acai juice or an acai extract (to a larger or lesser extent, according to their exercise and other nutritional and lifestyle habits too), but not massively. And no, their life did not change. There were nice, welcome, modest improvements but there was no “amazing body transformation” (what a horrid marketing BS phrase).

Similarly, in real life, 100 mL of chokeberry juice a day will not eliminate your oedema in 90 days, all on its own, as the second study suggests. Life would be so nice if such a thing could happen so easily.

Beneficial impacts of chokeberry and tart cherry based dietary supplements consumption on cellulite reduction

• Research paper link: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11130-024-01261-z

• Abstract: Cellulite is an aesthetically distressing skin condition occurring in 80–90% of females and manifesting as dimples and depressions, producing an uneven surface to the skin. Our aim was to evaluate the effect of combined oral consumption of two dietary supplements based on chokeberry and tart cherry juices over a period of 32 days on cellulite reduction. Twenty women aged 21–49 with a cellulite grade of 1–2 according to the Nurnberger–Muller scale were participating in the study. Ultrasonography was applied to analyze the skin structure in addition to biochemical and anthropometric parameters, which were measured before starting the treatment and after 32 days. A reduction in the thickness of the dermis with subcutaneous fat tissue, subcutaneous fat tissue alone, epidermis, and dermis with epidermis (15.02, 14.34, 21.98, and 20.94%, respectively) was noticed, while the length of the fascicles was reduced by 35.93%. Out of 20 subjects, 11 (57.9%) had edema of the dermis at the beginning of the study, which was not recorded at the end of the study. Moreover, a statistically significant increase in the tissue doppler (TD) signals was recorded in all subjects treated with two dietary supplements, indicating a better blood supply. Changes in anthropometric and biochemical parameters were not recorded. Creatinine, urea, ALT, and AST values, as indicators of kidney and liver function, remained at normal reference levels, pointing out the product’s safety. The positive effect of chokeberry and tart cherry juice-based dietary supplements consumption in cellulite condition could be connected with microcirculation improvements.

Dietary supplementation with polyphenol-rich chokeberry juice improves skin morphology in cellulite

• Research paper link: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24433076/

• Abstract: The aim of our study was to investigate possible beneficial effects of organic chokeberry juice (OCJ) consumption in the treatment of cellulite. Twenty-nine women aged 25-48 with a cellulite grade 2 according to the Nurnberger-Muller scale were included. Anthropometric and biochemical parameters were measured. Skin structure was analyzed by ultrasonography. All subjects consumed 100 mL of OCJ per day, during 90 days. Measurements of investigated parameters were performed at 0, 45, and 90 days of the study. A marked reduction in the subcutaneous tissue thickness was observed in all subjects, with the average reduction of 1.9 mm. The length of subcutaneous tissue fascicles (ScTFL) was reduced in 97% (28 out of 29) of subjects, with the average value of 1.18 mm. After 45 days of chokeberry juice consumption, reduction of edema was observed in 55.2% of the subjects with edema at the baseline, while at the endpoint of the study, edemas were not observed in any of the subjects involved in the study. OCJ could have beneficial effects on the cellulite condition, including the length of ScTFL, subcutaneous tissue, and dermis thickness as well as on edema reduction.

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