At this year’s holiday meals, you might frequently hear the cry for more cranberries to be passed around the family table. Whether in a drink, sauce, relish, jellied mold, bread, cake, or cookie, or in their original state, the health benefits of cranberries can’t be beat! According to the Kane County Farmer Newspaper, cranberries fight cancer, aging, diabetes, bacterial infections, and neurological diseases. The fruit also offers protection from inflammatory diseases, urinary tract infections, and tooth cavities.
“A lot of research has been done in the past on the role that cranberries have played in helping with urinary tract infections,” Cathy Segarra, Sun City Wellness nurse, said. “While they may help to prevent us from getting the infections, the latest info (WebMD – Oct. 2012) tells us that cranberries do not get rid of bladder infections. A doctor is needed for this help. If you do take a cranberry drink to help forestall having a kind of bladder problem, make sure that you do not take the high calorie/loaded with sugar variety. Instead, do take the tart-flavored pure cranberry juice for its health value.”
The red fruit also has antioxidant (guarding against infection and disease) compounds that may prevent cardiovascular disease through preventing plaque-buildup in the arterial system.
According to many sources, cranberries are strong in fiber, flavonoids, and phenols, and are great sources of lutein, folate, zeaxanthin, manganese, and potassium that help to control other body problems.
Acording to Diane L. Burnes, author of “Cranberries: Fruit of the Bogs,” pilgrims were introduced to the fruit by the Algonquin Indians who referred to the fruit as “ibimi” or “bitter berry.” Luckily for the pilgrims, the cranberries were carried aboard their ships to be used as food. Because the berries are also loaded with Vitamins C, A, and B, the fruit helped stave off the dreaded scurvy among the passengers.
Burnes also claims that the same Indians used the cranberry juice as a dye for their blankets and wool. The juice was also used as a healing potion by the natives. In fact, Native American medicine men used cranberries to draw poison from arrow wounds. According to the author, the berry became a symbol of peace for the Indians and was used to heal disagreements. Because the flower of the cranberry (seen in mid-June) resembles (in color and shape) the head, neck, and beak of the crane, the settlers renamed the ibimi to crane-berry, shortened to cranberry.
Kane County Farmer and Burnes tell us that cranberries are grown in beds referred to as marshes or bogs. Some of these beds are man-made, while others were formed by glacial deposits layered with sand, peat, gravel, and clay. Cranberries need a growing season from about May through October, in sandy soil with lots of fresh water.
The fruit is grown in the dry beds; but at harvest time (September through early November), the beds are flooded because the cranberries actually float in the water, making easier access to harvesting the fruit. The plants are dormant from about November until April, when the bogs are flooded once more to freeze and insulate the vines from the frost. Then the process begins anew.
Some interesting facts about cranberries, according to the Kane County Farmer, include the following:
1. Cranberries were first recorded as grown and harvested in Dennis, Massachusetts in 1816.
2. American troops during WWII needed one million pounds of dehydrated cranberries yearly.
3. Yearly in the U.S., 80 million of the 400 million pounds of consumed cranberries are eaten during Thanksgiving week.
4. If all the cranberries produced in North America were strung together, they would stretch from Boston to Los Angeles more than 565 times.
5. Friday, November 23 is “Eat a Cranbery Day.” For your health’s sake, don’t forget to do so!
Happy Thanksgiving!
