What Everybody Ought to Know About Cranberry Juice

Cranberries are iconic of the holidays, but there are more times of the year you can benefit from their delicious goodness. They are quite tart and need sugar to be palatable for most people. Their juice is often sweetened or combined with other juices to cut the tart flavor.

Being a bog plant, the cranberry bush produces highly concentrated fruits packed with nutrition. Since so few seeds can take root, nature made sure each berry was packed with as many nutrients as possible.

Why Is Cranberry Juice Good for You?

Cranberry juice is a diuretic. It helps clean out our systems and kidneys. In fact, it is one of the most popular home remedies for urinary tract infections (UTIs). They are packed with more antioxidants than nearly any other fruit, including oligomeric proanthocyanidins, anthocyanidins (they give them red color), cyanidin, peonidin, and quercetin.

Some research is showing that cranberry juice is effective in preventing and reversing cancer, heart disease, and digestive problems.

Just so you know, cranberry juice is acidic. Despite the whole alkaline/acidic myth, we recommend using cranberry juice as part of a healthy diet. That’s because our urine is supposed to be acidic. That means our kidneys are working correctly and filtering out toxins.

The acidic nature also helps to reduce bacteria in the urethra. A healthy, acidic urine has nearly no chance of becoming infected. It’s only when our bodies are bombarded by processed foods, fake alkaline waters, and bad supplements that our urine becomes unable to keep the bacteria away.

Types of Cranberry Juice

Unfortunately, the majority of cranberry juice goes into making mixes and cocktails. The juice you buy in the grocery stores is not pure, loaded with sugars and chemicals, and often so diluted it has no health benefits left. Additionally, the pasteurization process destroys the healthy antioxidants. The juice on the store shelves is little more than cranberry flavored sugar water.

Pure Cranberry Juice

You can make your own cranberry juice from scratch or you can purchase pure cranberry juice from smaller health food stores and online *. Many times, you purchase concentrations * and make up the juice at home. It is tart, but refreshing. Homemade cranberry juice can be a tad bitter when you get berries off-season.

Cranberry Juice Cocktails

The term cocktail means mix. So, your cranberry juice cocktail * is a mix of cranberry juice and other things.

Cranberry juice is ideal for mixing with other types of juices. Apple and grape juice are frequently added to cranberry juice in order to sweeten the tart juice. Most of the time, they are not flavorful enough to overcome the cranberry taste.

The combinations are limitless. We’ve added cranberry juice to other fruit juices and vegetable juices. The flavor and health benefits really cut through.

Try these examples:

Cranberry – Beet – Kale – Apple Juice

If you look at most commercial bottles of juice, you’ll actually find that apple or grape juice listed as the first ingredient. Those juices are cheap to add, where pure cranberry juice * is more expensive.

Many of the commercial juices also contain colorings, artificial flavors, preservatives, and other unnecessary junk. The chemicals and preservatives destroy the natural antioxidants. In fact, antioxidants are made to destroy the chemicals, so the companies have to put enough in to destroy the antioxidants, plus some.

Most cranberry juice cocktail is less than 20% cranberry. It’s such a powerful flavor, companies don’t need to add much to get the right balance. They just add in apple and grape juice to fill the bottle and part you from your money.

White Cranberry Juice

There aren’t many differences between regular red cranberry juice and white cranberry juice. White cranberry juice has fewer nutrients. Most of the helpful antioxidants make the red color.

White cranberry juice * is sweeter than the red. They white are harvested while still sweet, not tart. Again, losing the tartness means that juice has fewer antioxidants and is not as healthy.

Also, nearly every study was conducted on red cranberries. There is a little study done to see if white cranberries are as healthy. We believe the studies would show white cranberries are not as healthy. We still feel it is a good juice and would be a nice change of pace occasionally.

Side Effects of Cranberry Juice

There are a few people who are allergic to cranberry juice and the Vaccinium family. Usually, you will know at a young age and rarely is this allergy severe.

For many other people, drinking too much cranberry juice can cause stomach pain, diarrhea, and cramping. These are alleviated by drinking plain water and avoiding cranberry juice for a time. Then, you should limit your consumption.

There is quite a bit of oxalic acid in the berries. If you are susceptible to kidney stones, then most doctors will tell you to avoid cranberry juice.

Additionally, if you take any blood thinning or coagulating medications or have any problems with clotting factors in your blood, do not drink cranberry juice without a doctor’s okay. Several of the antioxidants in cranberries can enhance your natural clotting factors and/or can enhance your medication to an unhealthy level.

If you are pregnant, use cranberry juice with caution. Yes, it can help prevent UTIs, especially in the 6 to 23 week, when most women experience them. The pressure of the growing womb places stress on the kidneys and bladder, making UTIs more likely. The hormones also alkalizes the urine, which is unhealthy and nearly always causes UTIs.

However, pregnant women are also more likely to develop kidney stones, and the oxalic acid in the cranberries can cause this happen quicker.

Babies and young children should not drink cranberry juice. The stress on the kidneys and the digestive system is too much for them and could cause long-term problems. Infant death has been linked to cranberry juice.

Cranberry Juice Cleanse

Cranberry juice is not necessary for a detox. In fact, it could have a bad effect if overdone. During a detox, you are cleaning out your body of chemicals. It places a higher stress on your liver and kidneys than normal. If you force your liver and kidneys to work hard with cranberry juice, you could hurt yourself.

Fresh cranberries, on the other hand, could be a benefit in juices and during a cleanse. Just a ¼ of fresh berries per day can keep your kidneys working properly, without over stimulating them.

Here’s one more question answered: No, cranberry juice will not help you on your drug test. It does not clear out drugs from your system.

How Much Cranberry Juice Is Too Much?

Most people are already drinking too much. Most doctors and medical teams recommend between 1 and 10 oz of pure cranberry juice per day as a treatment for UTIs. We found the most stick to about 6 oz, or less than 1 glass of juice, split between 3 doses during the day. No doctor recommend juice cocktails.

More than that, researchers at the Tahoma Clinic have found increases your likelihood of return UTIs. You actually hurt yourself if you drink more than that.

For everyday use, we recommend no more than 4 oz of juice.

If you are diabetic, an 8 oz glass can take up most of your carb intake for a whole day. That 1 glass has between 30 and 35g of sugars. We do not recommend diabetics use cranberry juice except under the supervision of a doctor.

Homemade Cranberry Juice Recipe

Making Cranberry Juice with a Juicer

You can make cranberry juice by using your juicer, just like you would with many other fruits and vegetables. However, that might be less effective and more tedious as you would anticipate. Cranberries don't yield much juice this way and are likely to clog up your machine. 1 pack of cranberries (12 ounces) will yield about 8oz of pure cranberry juice. You will need a really powerful juicer for this.

Making Cranberry Juice without a Juicer

The pure juice is not the easiest to make. Below is one of the better recipes, although you can get others on the web. Just remember, cranberries are tart and do produce a tart juice!

What about Diluting with Sugar and Water?

Commercial juices are highly diluted with water and sugar. People who use commercial juices have been conditioned to accept the weaker juices for some time now, and cranberry juice is very strong.

If you are new to juicing and want to try cranberry, we recommend you cut your juice in half with water. Just do this until you are more used to the stronger flavor. Once you have come to enjoy the strong flavors of cranberry, you won’t ever go back to the watered down stuff.

Sugar, on the other hand, is optional. Many people need it to cut the tartness. We recommend you add sugar sparingly and only after trying the juice. Sugar are unnecessary and will undo many of the health benefits you gain by drinking the juice.

Sauce

Cranberry sauce * is iconic during the holidays. Yet, the stuff in the cans is bland and lacks any kind of palatable texture. Plus, it is so easy to make your own with variations for everyone’s palette.

Wine

Cranberry juice makes a fabulous cranberry wine *. It can rival the sweetest red for many people’s favorite.

You will want to use this juice quickly. Fresh cranberry juice can go bad quickly. It is a rich environment for many bacteria and yeasts.

Cranberry juice is good for UTIs because of the large amount of antioxidants in the juice. Also, it helps to lower the pH of the urine, which makes the bladder and urethra an inhospitable place for bacteria and yeasts.

The juice can also help clear out the kidneys and help prevent the bacteria from traveling though the bladder to the kidneys.

For the same reasons as why cranberry juice is good for UTIs, it is good for bladder infections and cystitis. A bladder infection is considered a UTI.

However, doctors do not recommend you wait to see if the cranberry juice will work. Once the bacteria move into your bladder, it becomes very dangerous. It is easy for the bacteria to now move into your kidneys and then even easier for the bacteria to move to your blood.

Kidney and blood infections are serious and life threatening events. We recommend you visit your doctor if you have a bladder infection.

Cranberry Juice for Detox

Under some circumstances, cranberry juice can help a detox. It can help your kidneys flush out toxins.

However, we recommend caution. During a detox, your body is flushing out many toxins. This places a high strain on your kidneys. If you place an extra burden on your kidneys with cranberry juice, you could end up with kidney problems later in life.

There have been cases seen during a detox where the kidneys shut down because of too many toxins and too many detox supplements. The body was not able to handle the extreme amount of toxins suddenly flushed back into the blood. The people literally poisoned themselves with toxins from their own body.

We do not recommend you detox without a nutritionist or doctor. Never detox with a certificate health coach or someone without a degree in nutrition or health. This places your life in danger.

Cranberry Juice for Gout

This is a conflicted area. There are blogs on the internet that will tell you conclusively that cranberry juice will cure gout, prevent gout, cause gout, and do absolutely nothing. Here’s the truth.

Several medical agencies recommend using less than 8 oz of juice per day to help prevent gout and reverse its effects. They cite the increased function of the kidneys as the ability to help filter out uric acid from the body.

We recommend you use cranberry juice with caution if you have a tendency towards gout. Yes, it is recommended by many blogs. However, the research and medical professions show that it is only when the rest of your diet is healthy, does cranberry juice actually help. Otherwise, you increase your risk of gout.

Cranberry Juice for Yeast Infections

One thing you must realize, yeast live on your entire body and they are part of our immune and defense systems. It’s only when this yeast goes out of control is it a problem.

The most common causes of yeast infections and overgrowth are a diet rich in processed foods, overusing antibiotics, and home ‘cures’.

The best cure for yeast is to follow a low-carb diet and keep your body dry. Sugars and body secretions are the best way to produce yeast. Hormonal changes in women also cause the yeast to grow, but a healthy diet will stop the yeast.

Currently, there are no studies showing cranberry juice is effecting for treating yeast infections. Several blogs will tell you it is effective, but cite no medical authority to back up these statements. In fact, most of them use the idea that since cranberry juice is effective for UTIs, it will also help flush out yeast. Unfortunately, the yeast is already part of the defenses in the urethra that block bacteria and making the urethra more acidic actually helps the yeast.

Since reducing your sugar and processed food intake is the best way to reduce yeast overgrowth, cranberry juice is not a good fit. It is high in sugars and most bottled juice are highly processed.

Cranberry Juice for Constipation

Cranberry juice is a mild laxative. It won’t force you to go, but it will help your natural processes. However, if you ever had a large glass, you most likely found yourself running to the bathroom.

Constipation is caused by processed foods and a lack of water. Cranberry juice is often processed and a diuretic. It is the opposite of what you need.

If you are constipated, you don’t need to avoid cranberry juice. It won’t help you, but a small amount won’t hurt you.

But, it’s not going to help you go. And if it does, you risk further dehydration and potentially damage to your body. It is not safe to drink more than 8-10 oz per day.

Cranberry Juice for Diarrhea

The body has a wonderful way of flushing out things that will harm it. Diarrhea is one.

Cranberry juice is not healthy or safe to drink during a diarrhea event. Especially for children, we recommend avoiding cranberry juice when you have diarrhea.

Since the juice flushes your system and reduces your water storage, cranberry juice will not hydrate you. The laxative effect could also delay your return to health.

Cranberry Juice for Kidney Stones

Due to the high amounts of oxalic acid, cranberry juice is contraindicated for people who experience kidney stones. Oxalic stones are one of the most common types of stones. All research has shown that the oxalic acid in cranberries is easily converted into stones for people susceptible to stones.

Cranberry Juice for Weight Loss

Cranberries have been touted as wonderful for weight loss. The many antioxidants are wonderful for helping your body.

However, cranberries or their juice will not help you lose weight unless you combine exercise and a proper diet. There is no miracle in cranberries.

In fact, the juice is so high in sugars, one of the highest of all the juices, that you could gain weight because you are taking in more than you are using.

The supplements * that have been out in the past decade are fraught with deception and lies. Most of them have been removed from the market for not actually containing any cranberry extract. Others contain so little to be worthless. Because of the delicate nature of the antioxidants, true supplements with therapeutic levels of extract would be prohibitively expensive for most people.

Cranberry Juice for Your Pets

Cranberry juice is not recommended for pets, even ones with UTIs. First, cranberry juice is too high in sugars for pets to be able to digest properly. This is especially dangerous in cats, as they lack the fully functional insulin response that humans and dogs possess.

Dogs may be able to handle a small amount, but it must be done under the supervision of a veterinarian.

If you made your own juice or wine, you’ll know cranberry juice stains. But, it’s not that hard to remove.

If the stain dries in the cloth, it is most likely permanent.