Craving the Cran

This past week was the first week of Christmas-themed commercials. I love the Christmas season, and while I’m not crazy about its commercialization, I nonetheless enjoy the spirit it exudes and the joyousness it brings. In short, I’m grateful for Christmas. But before we get to Christmas, how about appreciating another holiday, one that’s just two and a half weeks away – Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is a time to be grateful for the things we have – our family, our friends, the great country we live in and the traditional nature of our celebrations like Thanksgiving.

Another thing to be grateful for on Thanksgiving is, of course, the food! Several different polls show that the Thanksgiving feast is people’s favorite aspect of Turkey day. An online Discovery Health poll delved into this question by asking respondents what Thanksgiving staple was their favorite. Just sneaking by turkey was stuffing, with 38 percent. The least favored familiarity the meal? Cranberries – with a mere 7 percent of respondents calling cranberries their favorite foodstuff.

This poll is a darn shame because stuffing is the most calorie-rich of the Thanksgiving stand-bys, while cranberries and cranberry sauce – so long as it’s prepared naturally – is the most healthful from a standpoint of preventiveness.

Cranberries contain a number of antibacterial agents that help counter infections that feed off bacteria. Take urinary tract infections as an example. Cranberries have been known to prevent the occurrence of urinary tract infections for centuries, not to mention treat them when they arise. Researchers point to the high amounts of anthocyanins found in the skin of the cranberry itself as the reason for their preventive punch. The cranberry plays a key role in preventing diseases in other parts of the body’s excretory system as well, like bladder infections, kidney stones, even fighting off genital herpes (as reported in an October 2004 issue of the Journal of Science, Food and Agriculture).

Now, some of you familiar with the health benefits of cranberries may be saying, “Hey, Frank, the health benefits of cranberries are confined to cranberry juice. Not cranberry sauce!”

Oh contraire. Why? Because when made naturally, cranberry sauce is just as full of cranberries as the juice is. Further, according to researchers from Worcester (pronounced ‘wuss-ter’) Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts, cranberry sauce protects against E. coli infection.

E.coli is more commonly known for its infecting foods like beef and, more recently, peppers, but E.coli is the bacterium chiefly responsible for kidney and urinary tract infections. And again, the anthocyanins found in cranberries are believed to be the thing that combats E.coli, thus shorting out the bacterium’s ability to take hold of the urinary tract lining itself.

But, as infomercial narrators like to say, THAT’S NOT ALL…

Other favorable findings include cranberries’ ability to prevent macular degeneration, tooth decay, increasing good cholesterol levels (HDL), and killing off liver cancer cells that have a tendency to multiply quickly once hatched.

So, does any old can of cranberry sauce make the cut for dinner come the last Thursday in November? Certainly not. If convenience is your thing, my advice is to buy organic cans of cranberry sauce, which should be easy to find particularly at this time of the year (cranberries were in their peak of season just last week). But if you’re a cooking connoisseur, there’s no better way to serve cranberry sauce than by making them from scratch. There are lots of great, natural, healthy recipes you can find on the web (Google “natural cranberry sauce”).

The nutritional “bennies” are sure to leave you craving the cran come Thanksgiving Day.