Cranberry Nutritional Information

Dried whole cranberry nutritional information

A cousin of the blueberry, this very tart, bright red berry can still be found growing wild as a shrub, but when cultivated, is grown on low trailing vines in great sandy bogs. The American Cranberry, the variety most cultivated in the northern United States and southern Canada, produces a larger berry than the wild cranberry or the European variety.

Cranberries have long been valued for their ability to help prevent and treat urinary tract infections. Now, recent cranberry nutritional studies suggest that this native American berry may also promote gastrointestinal and oral health, prevent the formation of kidney stones, lower LDL and raise HDL (good) cholesterol, aid in recovery from stroke, and even help prevent cancer.

Fresh cranberries, which contain the highest levels of beneficial nutrients, are at their peak from October through December, just in time to add their festive hue, tart tangy flavor and numerous health protective effects to your holiday meals. When cranberries' short fresh season is past, rely on cranberry juice and dried cranberries to help make every day throughout the year a holiday from disease.

Proto Toptection against Urinary Tract Infection

Cranberries have been valued for their ability to reduce the risk of urinary tract infections for hundreds of years. In 1994, a placebo-controlled cranberry nutritional study of 153 elderly women was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association that gave scientific credibility to claims of cranberries effectiveness in preventing urinary tract infection. In this cranberry nutritional study, the women given cranberry juice had less than half the number of urinary infections as the control group (only 42% as many, to be precise), who received a placebo imitation "cranberry" drink. The daily dose of cranberry juice in this initial study was just 300 milliliters (about one and one-quarter cups). Since then, a number of other cranberry nutritional studies have also confirmed anecdotal tales of cranberry's ability to both treat and prevent urinary tract infections. In most of these later cranberry nutritional studies, subjects drank about 16 ounces (2 cups) of cranberry juice daily.

How does cranberry juice help prevent urinary tract infections? It acidifies the urine, contains an antibacterial agent called hippuric acid, and also contains other compounds that reduce the ability of E. coli bacteria to adhere to the walls of the urinary tract. Before an infection can start, a pathogen must first latch on to and then penetrate the mucosal surface of the urinary tract walls, but cranberries prevent such adherence, so the E. coli is washed away in the urine and voided. Since E. coli is the pathogen responsible for 80-90% of urinary tract infections, the protection afforded by cranberries is quite significant.

The most recent cranberry nutritional studies attempting to explain cranberries' protective effects on urinary tract health were presented at the Experimental Biology Conference held in April 2002. Amy Howell, research scientist at the Marucci Center for Blueberry Cranberry Research at Rutgers University and Jess Reed, professor of nutrition at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, compared the proanthycyanins (active compounds) in cranberries to those found in grapes, apples, green tea and chocolate. They discovered that the cranberry's proanthocyanidins are structurally different than the proanthocyanidins found in the other plant foods tested, which may explain why cranberry has unique bacterial anti-adhesion activity and helps to maintain urinary tract health.

A Pro-biotic Berry for Gastrointestinal and Oral Health?

Not only kidney infections, but the majority of infectious diseases are initiated by the adhesion of pathogenic organisms to the tissues of the host. Cranberries ability to block this adhesion has been demonstrated not only against E. coli, the bacterium most commonly responsible for urinary tract infection, but also for a number of other common pathogens.

Delegates at the 2002 American Chemical Society meeting and Experimental Biology Conference were also informed about cranberries' ability to act as a natural probiotic, supporting the health-promoting bacteria that grow in the human gastro-intestinal tract while killing off the bacteria that promote infections and food borne illnesses.

One cranberry nutritional study presented by Leslie Plhak from the University of Wisconsin-Madison found that whole frozen cranberries contained compounds able to inhibit the growth of common food borne pathogens including Listeria monocytogenes and E. coli 0157:H7, but enhanced the growth of the beneficial bacterium Lactobacillus fermentum by as much as 25 times.

Another cranberry nutritional test tube study published in Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition in 2002 indicated that a constituent in cranberry juice prevents the bacterium responsible for most gastric ulcers, Helicobacter pylori, from adhering to gastric epithelial cells (the cells that form the lining of the stomach).

Also published in this same journal in 2002 was a cranberry nutritional study noting that compounds isolated from cranberry juice actually dissolved the aggregates formed by many oral bacteria and was effective in decreasing the salivary level of Streptococus mutans, the major cause of tooth decay. Among the other fruits tested, none had a similar effect except blueberries, whose protective action was much weaker that that of cranberries.

Prevention of Kidney Stone Formation

Cranberries contain quinic acid, an acidic compound that is unusual in that it is not broken down in the body but is excreted unchanged in the urine. The presence of quinic acid causes the urine to become just slightly acidic—a level of acidity that is, however, sufficient to prevent calcium and phosphate ions from joining to form insoluble stones. In patients who have had recurrent kidney stones, cranberry juice has been shown to reduce the amount of ionized calcium in their urine by more than 50%, a highly protective effect since in the U.S., 75-85% of kidney stones are composed of calcium salts.

In one recent cranberry nutritional study evaluating the effect of cranberry juice on kidney stone formation, study subjects were divided into two groups, one of which drank 2 cups of cranberry juice diluted with 6 cups water each day for 2 weeks, while the other group drank tap water for the same period. After a 2 week period in which neither group drank any cranberry juice, the groups were switched, so that those who had drunk cranberry juice drank only tap water, while those who had drunk tap water consumed 2 cups cranberry juice diluted with 6 cups tap water daily for an additional 2 weeks. In both groups, drinking cranberry juice was found to significantly and uniquely alter three key urinary risk factors for the better: oxalate and phosphate excretion decreased; citrate excretion increased; and the relative super saturation of calcium oxalate was significantly lower.

In another trial that evaluated the influence of cranberry, plum and blackcurrant juice on urinary stone risk factors, cranberry juice decreased the urinary pH (made the urine more acidic), and increased the excretion of oxalic acid and the relative super saturation for uric acid. The researchers concluded that cranberry juice could be useful in the treatment of brushite (calcium) and struvite (non-calcium) stones as well as urinary tract infection.

Cholesterol-Lowering

After test tube research conducted at the University of Scranton demonstrated that cranberries' antioxidants could protect LDL cholesterol from oxidation, and animal research at three other universities provided evidence that cranberries can decrease levels of total cholesterol and LDL (low density or "bad" cholesterol), a human study has also corroborated these positive results.

The three month cranberry nutritional study funded by the U.S. Cranberry Institute was presented in March of 2003 at the 225th national meeting of the American Chemical Society. Researchers measured cholesterol levels in 19 subjects with high cholesterol after a fasting, baseline blood sampling, followed by monthly samplings. Ten of the subjects were given cranberry juice with artificial sweetener, while the other subjects drank cranberry juice with no added sugars. Like typical supermarket cranberry juices, the drinks all contained approximately 27% pure cranberry juice by volume. Each subject drank one 8-ounce glass of juice a day for the first month, then two glasses a day for the next month, and finally, three glasses a day during the third month of the study. Subjects were not monitored with respect to exercise, diet and alcohol consumption. Although no changes occurred in their overall cholesterol levels, study subjects' HDL (good) cholesterol increased by an average of 10% after drinking three glasses of cranberry juice per day—an increase that, based on known epidemiological data on heart disease, corresponds to approximately a 40% reduction in heart disease risk.

Similarly, subjects' plasma antioxidant capacity, a measure of the total amount of antioxidants available in the body, was significantly increased—by as much as 121% after two or three servings of juice per day. Increased antioxidant levels are also associated with a decreased risk of heart disease.

While the mechanism by which cranberry juice changes cholesterol levels has not been clearly established, the researchers have theorized that the effect is due to the fruit's high levels of polyphenols, a type of potent antioxidant.

Antioxidant Protection

Cranberry nutritional studies conducted at the University of Scranton, PA, and funded by the Cranberry Institute, a trade association for cranberry growers in the US and Canada, have revealed cranberries to be phytochemical powerhouses packed with five times the antioxidant content of broccoli. When compared to 19 other common fruits, cranberries were found to contain the highest level of antioxidant phenols.

Other cranberry nutritional studies presented at the 223rd national meeting of the American Chemical Society in April 2002 also showed that cranberries have among the highest levels of phenols of commonly consumed fruits. One study presented at the meetings by biochemist Yuegang Zuo from the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth looked at 20 different fruit juices and found that cranberry juice had the most phenols and the highest radical scavenging capacity of all of them.

The most recent study to compare levels of phenolic compounds in common fruits, which was conducted at Cornell University and published in the December 2002 issue of the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry also confirmed that cranberries had the highest phenolic content of the fruits studied. Cranberries were followed in descending order by apple, red grape, strawberry, pineapple, banana, peach, lemon, orange, pear and grapefruit.

History

American Indians enjoyed cranberries cooked and sweetened with honey or maple syrup—a cranberry sauce recipe that was likely a treat at early New England Thanksgiving feasts since by the beginning of the 18th century, the tart red berries were already being exported to England by the colonists. Cranberries were also used by the Indians decoratively, as a source of red dye, and medicinally, as a poultice for wounds since not only do their astringent tannins contract tissues and help stop bleeding, but we now also know that compounds in cranberries have antibiotic effects.

Although several species of cranberries grow wild in Europe and Asia, the cranberry most cultivated is an American native, which owes its commercial success to one Henry Hall, an observant gentleman in Dennis, Massachusetts. In 1840, Mr. Hall noticed an abundance of large berries grew when sand was swept into his bog by the prevailing winds and tides. The sandy bog provided just the right growing conditions for the cranberries by stifling the growth of shallow-rooted weeds, thus enhancing that of the deep rooted cranberries.

Cranberry cultivation soon spread not only across the U.S. through Wisconsin to Washington and Oregon, but also across the sea to Scandinavia and Great Britain. The hardy berries arrived in Holland as survivors of a shipwreck. When an American ship loaded with crates filled with cranberries sank along the Dutch coast, many crates washed ashore on the small island of Terschelling; some of the berries took root, and cranberries have been cultivated there ever since.

Despite their adventures abroad, cranberries are still primarily grown in the United States, where 154 thousand metric tons are produced annually. Half the annual crop still comes from Massachusetts and is harvested between Labor Day and Halloween. They also grow cranberries in the Pacific North West.

Oxalates Cranberries are among a small number of foods that contain measurable amounts of oxalates, naturally-occurring substances found in plants, animals, and human beings. When oxalates become too concentrated in body fluids, they can crystallize and cause health problems. For this reason, individuals with already existing and untreated kidney or gallbladder problems may want to avoid eating cranberries.

Oxalates may also interfere with absorption of calcium from the body. For this reason, individuals trying to increase their calcium stores may want to avoid cranberries, or if taking calcium supplements, may want to eat cranberries 2-3 hours before or after taking their supplements.

We hope that you got some good information from this Cranberry nutritional.

Cranberry is one of the fruit flavor options for Amaranth Delight, Amaranth Crunch, and Amaranth Pro.

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