Cranberries are one of the familiar foods in Europe and America, chosen by many families to complement a daily healthy diet. Research shows that cranberries contain many essential vitamins and minerals, support immunity, prevent the attack of bacteria, viruses, free radicals, and anti-aging, beautify skin and maintain skin health. Maintain a slim and attractive figure. Many people wonder what is cranberry juice? What is cranberry juice good for? Where do you buy it? Read this article to find the answer!
What is Cranberry?
Cranberries are a species of tree that grows abundantly in the cool climates of the Northern Hemisphere, including North America, Canada, and Europe. The cranberry tree is a climbing shrub, low stem, with small leaves, dark pink flowers and purple spikes in the center.
Cranberries are white and when ripe, turn red and juicy. Cranberries are used as food, medicine, and some even as a dye.
Are cranberries delicious?
Ripe cranberries have a sour taste that overwhelms sweetness as soon as they are ripe. This fruit can be eaten fresh, made juice, dried into jam, people often add sugar to make it easier to use.
The most commonly processed and most popular product is dried cranberries. After the drying process reduces the amount of water, cranberries are more juicy and convenient to use. We Vietnamese often enjoy dried cranberries, but rarely eat fresh and squeeze the juice.
What is cranberry juice good for?
Helps prevent urinary tract infections (UTIs)
Many women in their 20s and older are more likely to get a urinary tract infection, which causes discomfort and a burning sensation. Cranberry juice is known to be effective in preventing UTIs because it has antioxidants called proanthocyanidins that prevent the growth of bacteria that cause these infections.
Rich in Vitamin C
This fruit is rich in vitamin C and should be taken regularly. That’s because Vitamin C’s role is so important in the body. It helps prevent the common cold, boosts immunity in general and improves skin health. Cranberries help bright, smooth skin, anti-sagging, age-related aging, besides, it also works great in a weight loss diet.
Many nutrients and minerals
In addition to the antioxidant-rich fiber, cranberry juice contains many vitamins and minerals including protein, carbohydrates, phosphorus, sodium, calcium, magnesium, iron and zinc. It is also rich in thiamin and niacin. Cranberry juice is also a good source of vitamins B, E and K. This means that if you drink cranberry juice every day, you can meet a significant portion of your nutritional needs.
Provide energy
This juice is known to be high in natural sugars and carbohydrates. The calorie count per glass of juice is relatively higher due to its natural sugar content. If you want to replenish your energy levels after a workout or if you are in the process of losing weight, you should drink cranberry juice more often.
Prevent aging and cardiovascular disease
Cranberry juice contains antioxidants such as flavonoids that help maintain the health of the cardiovascular system. The heart is often affected by high blood pressure, obesity and diabetes, in which the arteries clog and cause heart attacks. Flavonoids present in cranberry juice are known to prevent this. The antioxidants also help in slowing down aging by fighting free radicals in the body.
May prevent cancer
Flavonoids present in blueberries have cancer-fighting compounds that reduce the growth of cancer cells in the body. They also have anti-tumor properties that prevent blood clotting and reduce the rapid growth of tumors in the body.
How to choose to buy fresh cranberries
- When buying cranberries, you should pay attention to choose those with a deep red color. Juicy berries, tight, smooth skin and a certain firmness. When you smell it, you will feel the aroma of the fruit.
- Do not take fruit that is soft and has wrinkled skin as that is a sign that the fruit is not fresh.
- If you can’t find fresh cranberries, you can buy frozen cranberries.
- You should choose to buy from reputable places, the quality of the fruit is guaranteed, the packaging has a clear production date and expiry date.
Delicious recipes mixed with Pomegranate
Ingredients
- 200gr Cranberries
- 3 Pomegranates
- 1/2 cup ginger
- 1 pinch Sugar/salt
How to make
- Soak pomegranates and cranberries in dilute salt water for 15 minutes, then rinse with clean water. Separate the pomegranate seeds and remove the skin. Wash and scrape off the peel of the ginger.
- Place pomegranate seeds, cranberries, 1/2 ginger root and 250ml of filtered water in a blender, cover and puree.
- Prepare a cloth bag or strainer to strain the blended mixture into the bowl to remove the residue. Then you add 3 tablespoons of sugar and stir well.
- Finished cranberry and pomegranate juice, add some ice to increase the refreshing coolness when drinking!
The juice has a delicious aroma with the typical sweet, sour and sour taste of pomegranate and cranberry, giving a very fresh feeling, so it is extremely suitable for you to soothe your body.
It can be seen that this product is not well known in Vietnam, but foreign customers often drink cranberry juice in their daily menu. It is the mild sweet and sour taste, low in calories that makes cranberry juice easy to drink and addictive. Hope this article has helped you answer the question “what is cranberry juice good for?” and pay attention to the addition of fruit juice!