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The Many Suits of Cranberries
A Bite-Size Read for Your Health and Waistline
They’re one of those “foods of the season.” For many people, Thanksgiving, or maybe Thanksgiving and Christmas, are the only times they even think about cranberries. As I reflected on this, I realized we do use cranberries…or rather cranberry juice throughout the year. Most commonly it’s used as a mixer in adult beverages. It’s also recommended as a remedy for urinary tract infections. Why is that? Turns out, cranberries offer a host of health benefits! As always, we’ll start with the nutrition facts then dive into what they mean for our health.
To start with the big picture: fresh cranberries are about 87% water. In one cup of raw cranberries there are 46 calories, 0.5g of protein, 0.1g of fat, 12g of carbs, of which there are 3.6g of fiber and about 4g of sugar. From this, we can gather that cranberries are primarily made up of water and carbohydrates. The fiber content is notable; 3.6g of fiber per cup is solid; it’s about the same as a cup of blueberries. On the flip side, we want to consider the sugar content and remember that most of the time, we’re not eating fresh cranberries (they’re super tart) we’re having them as a juice, which means we’re not getting that fiber to balance the sugar. On top of this, a lot of the available juices also add sugars and additional sweeteners.
