In Praise of the Cranberry

[Guest guest]

From: hsanborn2@...

Subject: Re: In Praise of the Cranberry

I discovered one can get concentrates of grape, blueberry and

cranberry

joice

in the health food stores, allowing one to leave out the sugar and

dilute as

desired. Peg

--------

I prefer to use the whole fruit. One has to question the processing

methods that were used to make the extract, and wonder if the extract

contains all of the beneficial components of the whole berry. One

would guess that the processing used to make the extract would

involve some loss or change in the flavonoid/polyphenol antioxidants.

Before I found a year-round source of whole cranberries (frozen), I

was using a Cranberry Concentrate, which would presumably involve

much less processing than an extract. However, the 8 oz. bottle of

cranberry concentrate had an expiration date 2 1/2 years in the

future, which means that it must have been heated up/ " pasturized " to

some extent, otherwise the enzymes/sugars in the berry would make the

concentrated juice go bad in a short period of time.

Whole cranberries may be difficult to find depending upon where you

live. There were none at all in El Paso. I special ordered them

from a food wholesaler, starting with a 10# order to check out the

quality (which was exceptional), and most recently I purchased a 40#

box of frozen cranberries, which, when thawed, are identical to the

fresh cranberries that show up in groceries near Thanksgiving time.

Most large supermarkets or health food stores with large frozen food

sections can special order them for you, and they arrive very

quickly, in less than one week, as they are trucked in along with all

their other frozen food items.

BTW, one article that I cannot find right now (but I e-mailed it to

Suz---Suz, perhaps you might post it?), showed that drinking 3

glasses of unsweetened (or artificially sweetened) cranberry juice

raised the HDL level (the good cholesterol) of the study participants

by 10%, and increased their total antioxidant capacity in their blood

by up to 121%.

Raising the HDL by 10% is quite remarkable, because very few things

raise HDL. This 10% increase is the same amount of increase that

drinking red wine is supposed to give. A 10% increase in HDL

corresponds to a 20-40% decrease in the risk of Coronary Artery

Disease.

Raising the HDL, increasing the antioxidant capacity of the blood,

and inhibiting the oxidation of LDL cholesterol (the bad cholesterol)

makes the cranberry a powerful weapon in preventing the #1 cause of

death in Americans.

HDL ideally should be at least 40 or 45---however, the total

cholesterol/HDL ratio is also very important----should be below 4.0,

and to reverse heart disease should ideally be 2.5. LDL should not

exceed 90, regardless of what the lab paperwork says is a " normal

value. " HDL is involved in reverse cholesterol transport: getting

LDL out of the peripheral tissues (including coronary arteries) and

bringing it back to the liver.

Ways to increase HDL:

1. Aerobic exercise is the best way, and the way most recommended by

cardiologists, and usually increases HDL by about 10% (however, some

people are unresponsive to this and their HDL does not increase by

exercise). To obtain this benefit, the exercise program must be very

consistent, e.g. 3-6x/wk sustained aerobic ex, such as

walking/jogging/cycling/rowing machine/ etc.

2. The B-vitamin Niacin, or in a prescription form that minimizes

flushing (Niaspan), is a powerful raiser of HDL, and it also lowers

LDL and total cholesterol. But the doses required are high, and the

liver enzymes must be checked regularly to make sure that the

Niacin/Niaspan are not harming your liver. These are pharmacological

doses of this B-vitamin, and should be done under the supervision of

a physician.

3. Drinking red wine may raise HDL by up to 10%, and generally

reduces the overall risk of coronary artery disease by 24%, shown in

over 40 studies.

4. Drugs of the class called fibric/fibrinic acid derivatives (e.g.

gemfibrozil) consistently raise HDL, but not as much as

Niacin/Niaspan does. Also the statin drugs (e.g. Lipitor) have a

modest but consistent effect in raising HDL by perhaps 5%.

5. The newest method, from a 2003 discovery-----cranberries.

If they do indeed raise HDL by 10%, it would be remarkable indeed.

But again the study had the participants drinking 3 glasses of

cranberry juice a day, which is quite a bit.

I'm experimenting on myself, eating 2 cups of whole cranberries per

day. After 12 weeks of doing this, I will have my HDL re-tested (I

have genetically low HDL, and for me, exercising regularly does not

raise my HDL). If it does raise my HDL close to 10%, it will be a

happy day for me.

BTW, the thawed (or even frozen) cranberries are delicious with a bit

of sucralose sprinkled on them----thanks Warren.

Bob Bessen