Cranberries
Cranberries are nearly 90 percent water. The rest is sugars and dietary fiber, including insoluble cellulose in the skin and soluble gums and pectins in the flesh. Pectin dissolves as the fruit ripens; the older and riper the cranberries, the less pectin they contain.
Cranberries also have a bit of protein and a trace of fat, plus moderate amounts of vitamin C. One-half cup cranberries has 1.6 g dietary fiber and 6.5 mg vitamin C (9 percent of the RDA for a woman, 7 percent of the RDA for a man).
One-half cup cranberry sauce has 1.5 g dietary fiber and 3 mg vitamin C (4 percent of the RDA for a woman, 3 percent of the RDA for a man).
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Relish made of fresh, uncooked berries (to preserve the vitamin C, which is destroyed by heat) plus oranges.
Low-fiber diet
Look for: Firm, round, plump, bright red berries that feel cool and dry to the touch.
Avoid: Shriveled, damp, or moldy cranberries. Moldy cranberries may be contaminated with fusarium molds, which produce toxins that can irritate skin and damage tissues by inhibiting the synthesis of DNA and protein.
Store packaged cranberries, unwashed, in the refrigerator, or freeze unwashed berries in sealed plastic bags for up to one year.
Wash the berries under running water, drain them, and pick them over carefully to remove shriveled, damaged, or moldy berries.
Rinse frozen berries. It is not necessary to thaw before cooking.
First, the heat will make the water inside the cranberry swell, so that if you cook it long enough the berry will burst. Next, the anthocyanin pigments that make cranberries red will dissolve and make the cooking water red. Anthocyanins stay bright red in acid solutions and turn bluish if the liquid is basic (alkaline).
Cooking cranberries in lemon juice and sugar preserves the color as well as brightens the taste. Finally, the heat of cooking will destroy some of the vitamin C in cranberries. Cranberry sauce has about one-third the vitamin C of an equal amount of fresh cranberries.
Urinary antiseptic. Cranberry juice is a long-honored folk remedy for urinary infections. In 1985, researchers at Youngstown (Ohio) State University found a “special factor” in cranberries that appeared to keep disease-causing bacteria from adhering to the surface of cells in the bladder and urinary tract. In 1999, scientists at study at Rutgers University (in New Jersey) identified specific tannins in cranberries as the effective agents. In 2004, researchers at Beth Israel Medical Center (New York) published a review of 19 recent studies of cranberries.
The report, in the journal American Family Physician, suggested that a regimen of eight ounces of unsweetened cranberry juice or one 300–400 mg cranberry extract tablet twice a day for up to 12 months safely reduced the risk of urinary tract infections. In 2008, a similar review by scientists at the University of Stirling (Scotland) of 10 studies showed similar results.
Increased risk of kidney stones. Long-term use of cranberry products may increase the risk of stone formation among patients known to form oxalate stones (stones composed of calcium and/or other minerals).
Anticoagulants Anticoagulants (blood thinners) are drugs used to prevent blood clots. They are most commonly prescribed for patients with atrial fibrillation, an irregular heartbeat that allows blood to pool in the heart and possibly clot before being pumped out into the body. In 2006 researchers at the College of Pharmacy and the Antithrombosis Center at the University of Illinois (Chicago) reported that consuming cranberry juice while using the anticoagulant warafin (Coumadin) might cause fluctuations in blood levels of the anticoagulant, thus reducing the drug’s ability to prevent blood clots.
