The tiny red cranberry, a favorite at thanksgiving, is in fact a cousin of the little blue fruit the blueberry. Both fruits are highly nutritious. Cranberries are well known for their medicinal power for the bladder but have numerous other functions as a food nutrient.
Cranberry nutrients is well know for its ability to beat urinary tract infections. Reports show humans who drink cranberry juice have less than half as many infections as those that do not drink cranberry juice.Cranberries have a substantial percentage of proanthycyanins. These compounds are different than the proanthycyanins identified in other fruits like blueberries, green tea and chocalate. This variation may be the rationale cranberries are so superior at lessening bladder infections where other nutrients are not. This was demonstrated in analysis in 2006. Cranberry juice keeps E.coli bacteria from affixing to the urinary tract therefore decreasing the bacteria’s ability to bring about infection.
The cranberry has also been revealed to be highly antibacterial and anti viral. The investigation shows that it has great promise as an alternate to antibiotics. The most recent research at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute show that nutrition in cranberry juice have the capability to actually change E. coli bacteria in ways that prohibit them from initiating an infection. This is even true of the resistent bacterial strains.
Cranberries are also anti viral and in a test utilizing three different viral species Ocean Spray cranberry juice wholly nutrilized all 3 viruses In a 2004 study phytonutrients separated from cranberries were successful against the herpes simplex virus (HSV-2) the cause of genital herpes
Another study showed cranberry nutrients act as a natural probiotic promoting the healthy bacteria that grow in the human gastrointestinal tract and the nutrients kill off the bacteria that lead to infections and foodbourne health problems
A University of Wisconsin research project found whole frozen cranberries, available almost everywhere. include compounds which are able to stop growth of prevalent foodbourne pathogins including Listeria monocytogenes and E.coli 0157:H7 but increased the growth of the beneficial bacterium Lactobacillus fermentum by 25 times.
Cranberry lab tests against cholesterol was done in 3 animal research projects and one test tube study. These all showed that cranberries can greatly reduce amounts of total choleaterol and LDL (bad) cholesterol. At this time human tests corroborated thiese findings. A three month published investigation had subjects drinking various amounts of cranberry juice everyday. The first month one 8oz glass a day, 2nd month 2 glasses and the 3rd month 3 glasses a day. This juice contained 27% pure cranberry juice by volume. Total cholesterol was unaffected but HDL (good) was increased an average 10% after consuming three glasses a day. This compares to to reducing heart disease risk by 40%.
Cranberries are also well known as an antioxidant fruit. Drinking two to three glasses of juice a day raised the above test subjects plasma antioxidant capacity by as much as 121% a very signifigant amount. Heightened antioxidant quantities are associated with decrease heart, cancer and stroke risk. Studies at The University of PA it was found that cranberries have five times the antioxidant ORAC Score of broccoli. The research showed that the phenol level of cranberries was the largest among the 19 foods tested.
In 2002 Catherine Nato an assistant professor at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth found two new nutritional ingredients in cranberries that were toxic to a array of cancer tumor cell lines. These included lung, cervical, prostate, breast and lukemia cancer cells.Another study found cranberry to have a strong ability to kill liver cancer cells.New research published in the Journal of Nutrition shows compounds in whole cranberries also inhibit prostate, skin, lung and brain cancer cells as well.
Fresh, frozen and dried cranberries are available at farmers markets during season as well as most stores. . Dried cranberries are a good way to get children interested in this great fruit. Dried cranberries make a great sweet tasting snack . Using flash frozen processes frozen cranberries retain all of their nutrient power Smoothies made from cranberries, blueberries and blackberries make a great antioxidant fruit smoothie.
