Cranberry

What Is Cranberry?

The cranberry is a low, trailing vine that grows in the peat bogs of northeastern North America. Vaccinium macrocarpon is one of a very small number of fruits farmed commercially on its home continent. This is the whole fruit, dried and ground, with a little vitamin C alongside it.

How It Works in the Body

Cranberry's character comes from its polyphenols. The ones that set the fruit apart are proanthocyanidins, or PACs: chains of flavan-3-ol units, mostly epicatechin, joined end to end.

In grapes, apples and cocoa those units are joined by a single bond. Cranberry is one of the few foods rich in A-type PACs, where a second ether bond locks each pair into a rigid shape. The fruit also carries anthocyanins, the pigments behind its color, and the sharp organic acids behind its taste.

What It Supports

• Urinary tract health: Cranberry supports urinary tract health, the use this fruit has long been known for.
• Antioxidant polyphenols: PACs and anthocyanins belong to the same broad family of plant antioxidants.
• Collagen formation: Vitamin C is the cofactor two enzymes need to build stable collagen.
• Immune function: Vitamin C supports normal immune function.

Who It May Suit

Anyone who wants cranberry as part of a daily routine without the sugar that comes with juice or sweetened dried fruit. The capsule is plant cellulose, so it fits vegetarian and vegan eating. Men and women alike.

Good To Know

This is whole cranberry fruit rather than a standardized PAC extract, so the polyphenols arrive in the proportions the berry grew them in. Talk with your healthcare provider before use if you take warfarin or another blood thinner, or if you have a history of kidney stones, since cranberry adds oxalate to the urine.