Tag Archives: Cranberries

Dried fruit benefits

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Easy to eat on the run, dried fruit can be good for your health too. Here’s what to choose for your body:

OSTEOPOROSIS: Raisins

Raisins are one of the richest sources of boron, a mineral documented to reduce bone loss in post-menopausal women. Sprinkle a handful into calcium-rich yoghurt for optimum bone-benefits and add pecans, another food rich in boron.
Average boron intake is 1-2mg a day, but a minimum of 3mg (and maximum of 10mg daily) is probably healthier.

FATIGUE: Dates

Feeling exhausted can make you crave sugary snacks. Dates are a great alternative as they have a relatively low glycaemic index (GI), which means they release their sugars slowly and keep energy levels steady, despite their intense sweetness.
Eat with protein — a handful of walnuts, for example — to keep you feeling full.

GOUT: Dried cherries

The anthoycyanins in cherries, particularly the sour, or tart, type that are found in most health stores, may be beneficial for a range of inflammatory-related conditions, including arthritis, gout and post-exercise muscle soreness.

A recent study by University of Michigan researchers revealed a cherry-enriched diet reduced inflammation markers in animals by up to 50 per cent. An effective ‘dose’ for humans seems to be half a cup of dried cherries twice a day.

Raisins

Raisins

HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE: Dried apricots

Dried apricots weigh in with more than three times the potassium content of bananas and contain only a trace of salt.

That’s good for keeping down blood pressure — potassium counters the water-retaining properties of sodium, keeping blood volume lower. Recent research at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta showed that consuming more potassium than sodium is protective against high blood pressure and heart disease.

Eating apricots dried means you’re likely to eat more, so will take in more nutrients.


BLADDER INFECTIONS: Dried cranberries

If you’re prone to bladder infections — and 20 per cent of women suffer recurrent problems — snack on dried cranberries.

In a U.S. study, two handfuls (42.5g) reduced the ‘stickiness’ of E.coli bacteria in infected women’s urine samples.

This means fewer urinary infections because the bacteria cannot attach to the bladder wall.

Proanthocyanidins are the active ingredient in cranberries that provide this anti-adherence effect.

CONSTIPATION: Prunes

Your mother was right — six prunes (50g) twice daily proved better at easing constipation than the laxative ispaghula (the active ingredient in Fybogel), according to a recent study. Prunes are rich in sorbitol, which draws water into the stool, making it easier to pass.

ANAEMIA: Figs

Vegetarian? Four dried figs supply a quarter of the recommended daily allowance of anaemia-protective iron. To get the full advantage, eat as part of an orange juice-steeped compote — vitamin C helps improve the iron your body absorbs from plant sources.

Cranberry juice and blood pressure

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Cranberry juice modestly lowers blood pressure in healthy adults when consumed daily, a carefully controlled trial showed.

Systolic and diastolic blood pressure both fell by an average 3 mm Hg with two 8-oz. glasses a day for 8 weeks, Janet Novotny, MD, of the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Beltsville, Md., and colleagues found.

The effect was significant compared with placebo for diastolic pressure, with a trend for systolic reduction as well, the group reported at the American Heart Association’s High Blood Pressure Research meeting in Washington.

Cranberry juice contains a “broad and interesting array” of the kind of plant flavonoids shown to reduce cardiovascular disease risk in epidemiologic studies, Novotny explained in an interview.

“If [patients] are trying to reduce blood pressure through diet, low-calorie cranberry juice would be something that would be good and healthful to include in that diet” as a replacement for less healthy drinks, she told MedPage Today.

The antihypertensive effect may be another reason to recommend cranberry juice in addition to its urinary tract benefits, commented Rachel Johnson, PhD, RD, chair of the American Heart Association’s nutrition committee.

The use of a low-calorie cranberry juice may have been an important factor, she explained in an interview with MedPage Today.

“Cranberries on their own can be quite sour and they need to be sweetened in order to be palatable to people,” said Johnson, a professor of nutrition and medicine at the University of Vermont in Burlington.

Cranberries

Cranberries

“Regular calorie cranberry juice can be quite high in added sugar and high in calories, so I do recommend that people look for the lower-calorie option in cranberry juice.”

The study included 56 healthy adults without hypertension (mean age 51, body mass index 28.4 kg/m2) randomized double-blind to drink 8 oz. of a low-calorie cranberry juice drink or a color, flavor, and calorie-matched placebo at breakfast and dinner daily for 8 weeks.

The rest of their diet was controlled to keep body weight stable during the trial, with all meals provided by the research center to minimize variation.


At the end of the treatment period, the average diastolic blood pressure was lower in the cranberry juice group at 69 mm Hg versus 72 mm Hg with placebo (P=0.029).

The cranberry juice group also saw blood pressure lowering compared with baseline:

*Diastolic blood pressure fell from 74 to 71 mm Hg (P=0.049)
*Systolic blood pressure declined from 122 to 119 mm Hg (P=0.12)

The placebo group saw no change from baseline in either blood pressure measurement (P=0.89 and P=0.37, respectively).

Most food intervention studies show a systolic effect without a diastolic impact when lowering blood pressure, Novotny noted.

The trend didn’t meet traditional criteria for statistical significance, but the 89% odds of a systolic blood pressure reduction with the cranberry juice was still pretty good, she suggested.

Johnson noted that the study may need to be replicated because of the fairly small sample size.