All food contains all of the nutrients we need to be healthy, it is necessary to eat various foods in sufficient amounts. A good diet will include many different foods, and sufficient in quantity and quality to meet an individual’s need for food energy and other micro nutrients.

Cured Meats

Dates

Eggplants

Eggs

Fennel

CRANBERRIES

Typical serving size:

½ cup, cooked or canned (1
7 oz or 48 g), or ¼ cup, dried (1
2 oz or 35 g)

HOW THEY HARM

Blood sugar spikes Drug interaction

WHAT THEY HEAL

Urinary tract infections Heart disease Cancer Cranberries are a native North American plant
Although they still grow wild in boggy areas, most are cultivated in Massachusetts, Wisconsin, British Columbia, Oregon, Washington, and New Jersey
Once served mostly as a condiment at Thanksgiving and Christmas, cranberries are now consumed throughout the year as juice, a dried snack fruit, and an ingredient in muffins and other baked goods

Health Benefits

May prevent and treat urinary tract infections
Studies show that cranberries contain a natural antibiotic substance that makes the bladder walls inhospitable to the organisms responsible for urinary tract infections
This prevents the bacteria from forming colonies; instead, they are washed out of the body in the urine
May help prevent heart disease
Cranberries are rich sources of anthocyanins, flavonols, and proanthocyanidins, plant chemicals that prevent LDL cholesterol from oxidizing, a process that makes it more likely to stick to artery walls
These chemicals also keep red blood cells from getting too sticky
An added bonus: They initiate a complex chemical reaction that helps blood vessels relax
Plus they decrease LDL cholesterol levels
Additionally, University of Scranton researchers reported that three glasses of cranberry juice a day can raise HDL levels up to 10%
May help prevent cancer
Not only do cranberries contain fiber and vitamin C, both of which help prevent cancer, but they also have bioflavonoids, plant pigments that help counter the damage of free radicals
Studies have singled out anthocyanin as the bioflavonoid that has an anticancer effect

Health Risks

Blood sugar
Most commercial cranberry juice contains large amounts of sugar or other sweeteners
To avoid spikes in blood sugar that can contribute to onset of diabetes, use a juicer to make your own cranberry juice or buy pure 100% cranberry juice
To reduce the amount of sugar needed, dilute 1 cup of concentrated juice with 2 to 3 cups of apple juice and then sweeten to taste

Allergies

Simmer cranberries, orange marmalade, and grated ginger to make chutney

Coat ½ cup fresh cranberries with flour and fold into pound cake batter

Toss dried cranberries into a spinach salad
WARNING!

FOOD-DRUG INTERACTION

Do not drink cranberry juice if you are on the medication warfarin
The interaction between the juice and the drug may lead to bleeding

Buying Tip

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When buying fresh cranberries, look for firm, bright red fruit

Berries that are at their peak will bounce when dropped; those that don’t are likely to be soft and past their prime

When buying dried cranberries, look for unsweetened ones, which have fewer calories and more fiber per serving

Storing Tips

Because cranberries are high in acidity, they will last a long time
Store them in their original plastic packaging or tightly wrapped in the refrigerator

Refrigerated cranberries can be kept up to 1 month; frozen cranberries, a year