Health Benefits of Cranberries
Often we think about cranberries during the holiday season. However, cranberries are a super food to be enjoyed year round as they outrank nearly every fruit and vegetable in disease fighting anti-oxidants.
Today I’m going to tell you a little more about the powerful nutrients that the cranberries have to offer however so that you can discover why you should be including them in your diet year round and not just as a holiday condiment.
Cranberry Facts
While eating cranberries in extracted or pureed form is good for you, eating them in their whole form will best provide you with all their health and healing benefits.
- Disease-fighting Anti-Oxidants: Cranberries are one of the top rated foods that you can consume to increase your intake of key antioxidants, which are important for reducing oxidative damage that can lead to a wide variety of diseases.
- Anti-inflammatory benefits: A regular intake of cranberries can also lower your risk for gum disease as it has powerful inflammatory lowering abilities throughout the entire body.
- Prevents certain cancers: Cranberries may help to decrease your risk factor of breast cancer, cancer of the lungs, as well as prostate cancer.
- Immune-boosting benefits: Adding cranberries to your diet may help to shorten the duration and lessen the severity of cold and flus when they attack.
Star Nutrients
- Vitamin C
- Manganese
- Vitamin K
- Vitamin E
How Cranberries Can Help You Lose Weight
Cranberries are super low in calories at just 23 calories per half a cup serving. Being that cranberries are so low in calories, you can easily fit this food into your diet plan and reap all the nutritional benefits they have to offer.
Cranberries are rich in dietary fiber as well, so will help to enhance your weight loss progress by providing a higher feeling of satiety after you meals while regulating your blood glucose levels.
They also will help to support a strong immune system due to the vitamin C content they contain, which will mean you bounce back quicker after intense exercise and can keep up your gym efforts even while on your fat loss diet plan.
So don’t overlook cranberries any longer. They’re a sweet treat that should be part of any sound diet protocol. Try them fresh on their own, tossed over a salad, or prepared into a sauce to serve with your main course meal.
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Let me know what you’ve learned about cranberries that you didn’t know before and how you plan on adding them in your diet by leaving a comment below and go Crazy For Cranberries 🙂
6 Responses on Health Benefits of Cranberries
Karen says:
December 19, 2013 at 10:17 am
Lezlie says:
December 19, 2013 at 11:11 am
johanna says:
December 19, 2013 at 3:39 pm
Pamela Kerr says:
December 19, 2013 at 8:02 pm
Karine Losier says:
December 22, 2013 at 10:54 am