Cranberries

After going through my post of yesterday, I realized how little I knew about cranberries apart from the typical stuff everybody knows…it’s full of antioxidants, it’s an American native fruit, mainly served at thanksgiving and Christmas as cranberry sauce and the drink is excellent for any urinary track problems…so I decided to do a little research and this is what I found…



The cranberry is one of only a handful of fruits native to North America. Others include the blueberry and Concord grape. They were widely found in Massachusetts and documented by the Pilgrims who settled there. It gets its name from the Dutch and German settlers who called it “cran berry” as when the bush flowers in light pink petals they have a resemblance to the head and bill of a crane. Over the time the name was shortened to cranberry. Rumour has it that cranberries may have been served at the first Thanksgiving dinner in Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1621 and one can find recipes using cranberries dating back to the 1700! Very interesting it appears that American vessels carried cranberries because of its generous supply of vitamin C that prevented scurvy a bit like their British counterparts used limes for the same reasons.

Cranberries have been cultivated at least since 1815. The hearty cranberry vine thrives in conditions that would not support most other crops: acid soil, few nutrients and low temperatures, even in summer. They are grown on sandy bogs or marshes. Because cranberries float, some bogs are flooded when the fruit is ready for harvesting. They are primarily grown in five states – Massachusetts, Wisconsin, New Jersey, Oregon and Washington. Some are also cultivated in Chile, Quebec and British Columbia.

Scientific research is revealing how healthy cranberries can be as they contain significant amounts of antioxidants and other phytonutrients that may help protect against:

•Heart disease as research shows that they have the ability to decrease LDL (bad cholesterol) and increase blood flow.

• Cancer as they are rich in flavonoids. These phytonutrients have been shown to inhibit certain types of cancer

• Ulcers as they may inhibit ulcer-causing bacteria from sticking to the stomach wall.

• Gum diseases for the same reason as Ulcers.

• Anti-Aging as a compound called polyphenolic that is found in cranberries may help protect against neurodegenerative diseases and the memory and coordination losses are often associated with aging.

• Urinary Tract Infection due to the proanothcyanidins (PACs) also found in cranberries and prevent these infections as they can prevent the adhesion on to the urinary tract wall of certain bacteria, including E coli, associated with these infections. The American National Kidney Foundation actually recommends drinking at least one large glass of cranberry juice a day to help maintain urinary tract health.

To conclude Cranberries are available in a wide variety of forms including fresh fruit, juice, sauce and dried. The Fresh fruit is generally available from September to December.