Why Should You Consider The Cranberry All Year Long?

When you hear the word “Cranberry”, what’s the first thing that comes to mind?

For most people, it’s festive holiday meals like Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years & Easter. Fall may be cranberry harvesting time, but the berries are easy to obtain all year long…especially if you like the frozen variety. You can easily get frozen cranberries in most super markets. (They’re inexpensive, too & you can keep them in the freezer for months) Canned berries are ok, but remember, heating destroys some nutrients. (All canned goods must be heated, it is a part of the canning process) When you learn about all the health benefits these little tart berries pack in, you’ll want to consider the cranberry all year long.

Watch for the bright, zesty and festive recipe right here on this page! When you know all the wonderful ways to put cranberries to use, they’ll go much further than just sauce for your turkey.

Whole berries are best!
Certainly, cranberry juice & cranberry extract can be used for benefits if you don’t like whole berries. You can even get powdered cranberry supplements in pill form if you hate the flavor. However, whole berries provide anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory, anti-bacteria, and antioxidant benefits due to “nutritional synergy”. Nutritional Synergy is a concept familiar to food-combination experts. (Food combiners eat specific foods in combination with each other at the same meal, in order to enhance the absorption of nutrients by their bodies) Certain nutrients enhance others when eaten together. A simple example would be how boron (a trace mineral) and magnesium help the body & bones use calcium if all 3 are eaten at the same time. Chia seeds, another ingredient you’ll see in this cool recipe contain calcium (even more by weight, than milk!) and the trace mineral boron. The chia seed does some of the combining for you! Another example that’s more common is olive oil (a fat) or avocado (a different plant fat) and salad greens or other veggies. The plant fats help you absorb the nutrients in the other vegetables.


The chia seed may be one of the worlds' healthiest seeds, but eating chia alongside other fruits and vegetables is a great thing to do. One of the many somewhat unexpected foods you can try is the colorful cranberry! This article demonstrates the benefits of both chia seeds & cranberries...plus it has a cool recipe you can try right away, plus inspiration for even more. If you're at all curious about why you should consider the cranberry...you're about to find out!
Why Should You Consider The Cranberry All Year Long?
When you hear the word “Cranberry”, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? For most people, it’s festive holiday meals like Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years & Easter. Fall may be cranberry harvesting time, but the berries are easy to obtain all year long…especially if you like the frozen variety. You can easily get frozen cranberries in most super markets. (They’re inexpensive, too & you can keep them in the freezer for months) Canned berries are ok, but remember, heating destroys some nutrients. (All canned goods must be heated, it is a part of the canning process) When you learn about all the health benefits these little tart berries pack in, you’ll want to consider the cranberry all year long. Watch for the bright, zesty and festive recipe right here on this page! When you know all the wonderful ways to put cranberries to use, they’ll go much further than just sauce for your turkey. Whole berries are best! Certainly, cranberry juice & cranberry extract can be used for benefits if you don’t like whole berries. You can even get powdered cranberry supplements in pill form if you hate the flavor. However, whole berries provide anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory, anti-bacteria, and antioxidant benefits due to “nutritional synergy”. Nutritional Synergy is a concept familiar to food-combination experts. (Food combiners eat specific foods in combination with each other at the same meal, in order to enhance the absorption of nutrients by their bodies) Certain nutrients enhance others when eaten together. A simple example would be how boron (a trace mineral) and magnesium help the body & bones use calcium if all 3 are eaten at the same time. Chia seeds, another ingredient you’ll see in this cool recipe contain calcium (even more by weight, than milk!) and the trace mineral boron. The chia seed does some of the combining for you! Another example that’s more common is olive oil (a fat) or avocado (a different plant fat) and salad greens or other veggies. The plant fats help you absorb the nutrients in the other vegetables.

		What are the health benefits of cranberries? It’s pretty much common knowledge that cranberry juice can help fight urinary tract infections. But do you know how they work to do this? They prevent bacteria from sticking to the bladder lining. However, when researchers looked into this handy fact, they found that this same “non-stick” property of cranberries could also be used to prevent the ulcer-causing bacteria (helicobacter pylori) from gaining a foot-hold on the stomach lining. Researching one benefit led to the discovery of another.
Adding whole cranberries to an apple pie like this one helps make it unique. This pie also has a drizzle of caramel sauce & crunchy nuts for true fall flavor.
These berries fight inflammation too. What is inflammation? Inflammation is the body’s response to thing it perceives as harmful stimuli. However, it is not always the correct response. As you know, this can include allergies, which are caused by the body thinking relatively harmless substances like pollen or pet dander are a serious threat. Ongoing inflammation is bad for your health, so calming it down with phyto-nutrients & anti oxidants is a good idea. Cranberries fight inflammation with their various phyto-nutrients. These include Proanthocyanidins, Anthocyanins, Flavonoids, Triterpenoids & Phenolic Acid.(Each one of these long words is a useful nutrient, you can look up each one with a search engine to learn more, as there are too many facts about each one for just one article to contain!) For example, there may be 6000 kinds of flavonoids you can eat from various plants, to boost the effectiveness of vitamin C, reduce inflammation & help neutralize overly reactive oxygen containing molecules.
Inflammation can trigger problems with the dental gums, it can cause premature signs of aging, and irritate the lining of blood vessels. When you lower inflammation of the gums, you’ll have healthier teeth. When you reduce artery inflammation, you can improve your cholesterol, because cholesterol on artery walls is used to protect them from inflammatory particles. Skin health the major marker of premature aging (affected by environmental factors like sun light exposure, pollution & hydration) can especially benefit from healthy hydration & eating habits.
			Cranberry relish tops the “Thanksgiving Turkey Burger”. It has your favorite turkey stuffing spices & tasty relish for a “taste of the holidays” any time of the year!
Now that you know many of the ways whole cranberries can help, why not give them a whirl in your food processor to try this delicious cranberry relish recipe. You can serve this over meat, like turkey, or use it on crackers as an appetizer. It goes well with mild cheese, or you can use it as a spread in a Panini sandwich. It’s so versatile, what will be your favorite way to use it?

	Chicken panini sandiwch with fresh pomegranate aril & cranberry relish on rustic cranberry ciabatta bread. Just wait 'till you smell it cooking in YOUR panini machine.
Ingredients 1/2 bag (6 ounces) fresh or frozen cranberries 1 hand-full fresh cilantro 1/4 or 1/8 jalapeno pepper, de-seeded 1/4 cup pomegranate arils 1/4 cup agave nectar or sweetener of choice 1/4 inch round of a red onion 2 tsp dry MySeeds chia Seeds 3 tbsp lime juice This is so easy to make, it takes only minutes! Rinse the cranberries in a colander. Pick out any under or over ripe berries. Rinse the cilantro, and shake to dry. Use kitchen scissors to cut off any long stems of the cilantro. Remove the seeds from the pepper. Put cranberries, cilantro, onion, and pepper in the food processor. Pulse a few times to chop well. Next, add lime juice, agave nectar, dry chia & the pomegranate arils. Pulse quickly 2 times to blend everything together. It’s important to not over-chop or it will become slush. The mixture should be thick & spread-able. For use on crackers, cheese or chips just spoon the mixture into a festive bowl and you’re ready to serve. Sweetening with agave nectar gives it a lower glycemic index score. Agave tastes sweeter than sugar, so you can use less. It also has a lower glycemic score than plain granulated sugar. This recipe also works with stevia, if you can’t get agave nectar. (Stevia is a natural extract from the leaf of the stevia plant, that is many times sweeter than sugar. You should be able to find it as liquid stevia drops, or dry stevia powder in your super market. There are several brands of stevia.) There’s a little jalapeno pepper in this recipe. If you want it hotter, just add a fraction more from your fresh or frozen pepper. Since the mixture is pulsed in a mini chopper, fresh or frozen berries will work. Chia seeds form a gel when exposed to liquid, and they help blend the flavors together, while adding two kinds of healthy fiber. You can change the consistency of this recipe by adding more dry chia seeds, if you wish. It is best to let this relish sit in the refrigerator for about 10 minutes (or more) before use so that the chia can do its job with absorption & flavor blending.
	So be sure to get your vitamin C, vitamin A, lutein, ß-carotene, zea-xanthin, folate and minerals like potassium, and manganese while enjoying the taste of these versatile berries. This isn’t the only recipe, too! There are plenty more at your fingertips when you choose MySeeds! We give away free chia seed cook books with any size order, so you’ll always know just what to do with your chia. It’s worth-while to see how many ways you can use the cranberry now that you know how healthy it is for you. You can search online for recipes, jump onto our Recipe of the Month Club Mailer, grab a physical chia cook book, or explore our free instant chia books.

Pink cranberry popsicle! It's not too tart, and keeps you feeling full thanks to the chia seeds mixed in. It could be a great frosty snack.