Cranberries
Food · Fruit · Food, Typed Supps
Cranberries are tart, low-sugar berries packed with vitamin C and fiber, and a natural compound that keeps bad bacteria from clinging to your bladder.
Stage by stage
- Chewing & release (Mouth): Chewing ruptures the berries' skin and pulp, releasing fiber, organic acids, vitamin C, and polyphenols like proanthocyanidins.
- Stomach breakdown (Stomach): Stomach acid begins dissolving vitamin C and smaller phenolic compounds while fiber passes through largely undigested.
- Intestinal absorption (Small intestine): The small intestine absorbs vitamin C, sugars, and a portion of the proanthocyanidins and other polyphenols into the bloodstream.
- Bladder delivery (Bladder/urinary tract): Circulating metabolites and intact A-type proanthocyanidins are concentrated in urine, where they can reduce bacterial adhesion to the bladder wall.
Timing
Cranberries can be eaten at any time, but their tartness and acidity are often easier on the stomach when consumed with a meal rather than alone.
Time to effect
- Weeks: Reduced UTI recurrence risk from regular cranberry intake has been observed over weeks to months of consistent use in clinical trials, not from a single serving.
Allergens
None of the fourteen major allergens. Derived from what this food is, not from a product label.
Eating patterns
Fits: Vegan, Vegetarian, Pescatarian, Halal, Kosher, Gluten-free. Depends on the product: Low-FODMAP.
In season
October to December in the northern hemisphere, April to June in the southern.
Satiety
128 on the satiety index, where white bread is 100 — moderate. Modelled from the Holt et al. (1995) measurements.
Environmental footprint
1.5 kg CO2e and 420 litres of freshwater per kg, matched to "Berries & grapes" in Poore & Nemecek (2018), Science 360.
Cost band
Cheap — roughly £3 per kg, as a band midpoint rather than a price.
Key nutrients
Nutrition per 100g
- Calories: 47.1
- Protein: 0g
- Carbohydrate: 12.2g
- of which sugars: 11.3g
- Fat: 0g
- of which saturated: 0g
- Fibre: 0.1g
- Sodium: 9mg
Food vs. supplement
Whole cranberries and unsweetened juice provide fiber, vitamin C, and a full spectrum of polyphenols together, while standardized proanthocyanidin supplements offer a more consistent, measurable PAC dose shown in trials to matter for UTI-risk reduction.
Kitchen tip
Choose unsweetened dried cranberries, whole fresh or frozen berries, or 100% cranberry juice instead of sweetened "cranberry cocktail," which is often mostly sugar and water.
Common myth
"Drinking cranberry juice cures a urinary tract infection." In reality: Cranberry compounds can help prevent bacteria from adhering to the bladder wall and may modestly lower recurrence risk in susceptible groups, but a 2023 Cochrane review found no evidence they treat an active infection; a UTI with symptoms still requires medical evaluation and often antibiotics.
Recipes that use it
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