Your Cart is Empty
Cranberries are a very healthy snack well-suited for the adventurous.
When you’re planning an extended trek, camping trip or a short day hike, you will need portable fuel. Not all snacks are created equal though. What we eat is more important than the calorie count.
A candy bar may give you a burst of energy, but the lasting effects to your health could be quite harmful. Instead of something highly-processed, try packing fruit.
Fruit contains nutrients and natural health goodness that our bodies need while being delicious in taste. Cranberries are an amazing choice to carry on your journey!
Fighting Short-Term Ailments
Cranberries prove to be an excellent source of antioxidants. Since we all have free radicals inside our bodies, increasing the antioxidant count to combat those free radicals would be a great choice.
Cranberries even raise the overall antioxidant capacity of blood, which is vital for fighting illnesses. Antioxidants help detox the body, so higher counts of antioxidants in the blood means better detoxification for your body.
You may not be thinking about dental hygiene while hiking or camping, but cranberries help keep your mouth free of bacterial buildup. Your gums will be glad you ate cranberries, since they help prevent gum disease.
The phytonutrients in cranberries are what prevent bacteria from sticking to our teeth. Those same phytonutrients help prevent stomach ulcers and UTIs by preventing bacteria from attaching to the stomach lining and urinary tract. This helps the body flush the bad bacteria before it can affect you.
Extreme thirst, sluggishness, nausea and blurred vision combine for a difficult experience, especially while on an adventure. These are symptoms of high blood sugar levels and can be assuaged by having lower fasting blood sugar levels.
Fighting Long-Term Health Conditions
Those same symptoms could be signs of metabolic syndrome (MetS), which cranberries combat by lowering fasting blood sugar levels.
Pectin is the soluble fiber found in cranberries that helps lower cholesterol. The antioxidant benefits of cranberries help prevent LDL from becoming more dangerous lipids as well. The improvement of HDL and LDL levels help stave off cardiovascular disease, which keeps you exploring longer.
Cranberries can also slow tumor growth, making them helpful in the fight against cancer. More specifically, studies are showing cranberries have a positive impact on prostate, liver, breast, ovarian and colon cancer.
Taking a look at history, Native Americans used cranberries to treat bladder and kidney issues, while early European settlers of North America used cranberries stomach complaints and scurvy. Let’s all agree to eat more cranberries so we don’t have another scurvy outbreak.
Get More Miles from Your Snack
Fiber helps digestion and curbs hunger. Thankfully, cranberries contain a considerable amount of fiber. That makes cranberries filling as well as healthy for your digestive system.
While adventuring, injuries may happen. The body becomes inflamed as a response to an adverse condition such as an acute injury. The anti-inflammatory properties of cranberries can help you recover quicker from injuries by reducing the inflammation that blocks nutrients from being delivered to the area.
Eat More Cranberries!
Cranberries are an excellent source of goodness for the body and their portability make them an ideal snack for when we are on the move.
To be good to your stomach, urinary tract, blood and immune system, eat more cranberries.
Keep in mind that cranberries retain beneficial properties while frozen for up to 12 months. Feel free to take your cranberries and store them in the freezer until you’re ready for your next adventure!
Sources:
http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=145 http://www.nola.com/healthy-eating/2015/11/six_health_benefits_of_cranber.html http://www.theluxuryspot.com/6-health-benefits-dried-of-cranberries/ https://www.healthcentral.com/article/cranberries-and-cholesterol
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/269142.php