Cranberry - super food and seasonal favorite
During our last holiday in New York, our regular breakfast deli waitress would recognise us as we walked in, and after enquiring about the progress of our vacation, would bring over a glass of cranberry juice for me and a glass of oj for my husband for us to drink while we ordered.
I have something of a name for myself for liking cranberry juice . The unsweetened variety is refreshing and good for me. It's an antioxidant, for starters, packed with Vitamins C and E as well as fiber. It's good for my digestion , boosts my immune system and apparently can also help in fighting the effects of cancer (probably because it helps the immune system).
More here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/269142.php and http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/features/cranberries-year-round-superfood
Got turkey ? Have cranberry sauce.
Got pork ? Have cranberry jelly.
Muffin craving? Add cranberries.
Need a healthy snack? There's always dried cranberries.
Cranberry juice is also a good mixer for spirits, if your taste runs to that.
One contraindication is that cranberries should not be consumed by anyone taking warfarin , because it can cause increased incidence of bruising. That's also true of people taking garlic supplements though, and I know I bruise easily because I take both cranberry and garlic tablets daily.
Yes, cranberry is also available in tablet form, and for those women who suffer from recurrent UTIs, it can be a godsend. It is prescribed as a standard solution for cystitis, no matter how acquired, but there is always the possibility that if a woman is already taking cranberry supplement, the perfect storm to create the UTI may not occur.
I started taking cranberry supplement earlier this year because I had read about its antioxidant and immune system boosting properties, and fancied seeing how that might help me. It has helped me in many more ways than that, so it will become a regular in my supplement regime in one form or another from now on.
Cranberry supplement tablets are available from supermarkets, health food stores and Amazon, at least in the UK.
Image Credit » http://pixabay.com/en/currant-cranberries-red-currant-151391/ from OpenClips on Pixabay. Public Domain image under CC0
Comments
maxeen wrote on December 2, 2014, 5:20 PM
I always get my vitamins from a health shop,just to make sure they are natural..cranberries are excellent.
scheng1 wrote on December 2, 2014, 8:39 PM
Cranberry is very expensive because it does not travel well by air.
celticeagle wrote on December 3, 2014, 2:04 AM
It sure can be a godsend. I had an UTI one time years back now and I was in some pain. I drank cranberry straight and when about two hours I was over the UTI. Gone! It's great stuff!
AliCanary wrote on December 3, 2014, 2:08 AM
Cranberry juice is a bit too strong for me, but I do love cranberry muffins. Cranberries really are just packed with antioxidants, like blueberries--berries in general are pretty awesome, I guess! Good caution about the warfarin, which a lot of people take. I bruise easily because my skin is kind of delicate, so I'm used to it. I'm forever bashing into stuff and getting marks, lol
Ruby3881 wrote on December 3, 2014, 6:20 AM
I love cranberry too! Most of the juices are so sweet, though. I was given cranberry-cherry cocktail not too long ago, and it was so unlike anything I's describe as cranberry. Too much added sugar!
Feisty56 wrote on December 3, 2014, 1:46 PM
My daughter swears by the cranberry supplements when she has a bladder infection. It's difficult and pricey to drink enough of the unsweetened juice to help rid the infection, so the supplement form makes the most sense there.
WordChazer wrote on December 3, 2014, 3:02 PM
Now that I didn't know scheng1 . I think there has been a poor harvest of the fruit this year as I've noticed it is quite difficult to find cranberry tablets at the moment, but there is always juice to help out.
WordChazer wrote on December 3, 2014, 3:05 PM
You should have seen my arm after I had my blood test earlier this year. I came up in a beautiful rainbow colored bruise that took about 2 weeks to fade. Oddly enough, my flu jab wasn't as bruised but it itched solidly for a week. However, thus far the combination of multivits and the jab seem to have kept the lurgies down, if not actually away. I haven't had any time off work sick this winter (yet) which given that I work in an area which sees hundreds of patients a day, is pretty good going.
WordChazer wrote on December 3, 2014, 3:20 PM
I LOATHE added sugar in drinks. Sweetened cranberry juice is vile! I don't add sugar to anything, just as I don't add salt to anything except freshly cooked chips/fries. I know that crisps/potato chips come with added salt and so do the Pot Noodles I love for a Friday lunchtime treat, unfortunately.
WordChazer wrote on December 3, 2014, 3:40 PM
It'll be interesting to hear what my doc says when I go back to her next time.
Ruby3881 wrote on December 4, 2014, 4:35 AM
I don't think it's possible to get unsweetened cranberry juice here. They used to sell it decades ago, but I guess there was little to no market because it was so tart. The quality juices here are only very lightly sweetened, whereas the less expensive ones are more like a "punch" or a "beverage."