Cranberries: Your New Favorite Fall Fruit

Cranberries are one of the most recognized foods of Thanksgiving. Whether you like jellied cranberry sauce that comes from a can or whole cranberry sauce that is usually homemade, it doesn’t matter, they are vegan.

I always suggest that my readers pick up a couple of extra bags of cranberries when doing their Thanksgiving meal shopping. Leftovers will get boring after a few days. There are some great things you can do with cranberries that will make it your favorite fall fruit.

This marble-sized fruit is a plant powerhouse. It is loaded with Vitamin C. Vitamin C is an essential antioxidant and helps maintain your bones, muscles, and skin. It also has fat-soluble antioxidant Vitamin E, Vitamin K1, which is necessary for blood clotting, and manganese, which is vital for your sustaining your metabolism, growth, and body’s antioxidant system. It is known for reducing the occurrence of urinary tract infections due to its phytonutrients known as A-type proanthocyanidins.

Who knew this little thing could do so much?

And that’s not all.

Cranberries have been linked to reducing stomach cancer, inflammation and ulcers by preventing the bacterium Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) from attaching to the lining of your stomach.

If that wasn’t enough, there are links to cranberries being good for heart health for their array of anthocyanins, proanthocyanidins, and quercetin. Cranberries have been recognized for lowering LDL (bad) cholesterol in people with diabetes, protecting LDL (bad) cholesterol from oxidation, increasing HDL (good) cholesterol, lowering blood pressure, decreasing stiffness in blood vessels among people with heart disease, and decreasing homocysteine in blood vessels to cut the risk of inflammation.

There is a caveat to consuming cranberries. If you are predisposed to kidney stones, you might want to curb your cranberry consumption. Cranberries contain high levels of oxalate and might be a problem for those that are susceptible to developing kidney stones.

There are plenty of ways to enjoy cranberries after Thanksgiving. I stock up and freeze bags of cranberries to use throughout the year. One of my favorite ways of using them is in a smoothie.

Robin’s Cranberry Orange Smoothie

Ingredients

Instructions

  • Peel Orange
  • Rinse 2 cups of frozen cranberries
  • Put peeled orange and cranberries into a Vitamix
  • Add coconut water to the Vitamix
  • Put the lid on the Vitamix and make sure that it is secure. This is a Very Important Step that shouldn’t be overlooked. Trust me.
  • Blend until smooth. You will see a vibrant red color and no pulp.
  • Pour into a glass and enjoy

Notes

  • You can use a high speed blender if you don’t have a Vitamix. I highly recommend a Vitamix because it is built to last and handles frozen, hard items like cranberries easily.
  • You can garnish it with mint which will make for a very pretty presentation.
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