Cranberry

Also known asVaccinium macrocarpon · 蔓越莓

Name: Cranberry (Vaccinium macrocarpon, the American cranberry, by far the most widely grown species).

Description

Cranberry is the fruit of several low, wiry, trailing plants in the genus Vaccinium, native to acidic bogs and marshland across the northern United States and Canada. The evergreen plants stay under a foot tall, sending up small bell-shaped pink flowers in June that develop into round, crimson, currant-sized berries with a distinctly sharp, acidic taste by the time they ripen in September.

Commercial growers cultivate cranberries in peat bogs topped with sand, concentrated mainly in Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Wisconsin, with further production near the Pacific coast in Washington and Oregon. Rather than being picked by hand, most fields are flooded at harvest time so the ripe berries float free of the vines and can be corralled and scooped from the water — the source of the familiar images of cranberry bogs each autumn. Almost all cranberries end up as juice, sauce, or dried fruit rather than eaten fresh, and in the United States and Canada they are a fixture of Thanksgiving and Christmas tables.

Main nutrition value

Per 100g, raw cranberries:

Cranberries offer a useful amount of fiber and vitamin C for so tart a fruit, plus manganese and a range of polyphenol antioxidants that have made cranberry extract a popular subject of urinary-tract-health research.

How best to be consumed

Raw cranberries are too bitter and sour for most people to eat out of hand, so they are almost always cooked down into a sauce or relish, dried into sweetened “craisins,” or pressed into juice. Since sweetened, dried, and juiced cranberry products can carry a lot of added sugar, checking the label — or making a simple homemade sauce with modest sugar — keeps more of the fruit's benefit relative to its sugar load.

Overconsumption could cause…

Whole cranberries in ordinary amounts are safe for most people, but concentrated cranberry juice, extract, or supplements taken regularly can interact with blood-thinning medication such as warfarin and are worth discussing with a doctor first. Cranberries also contain oxalates, which matters mainly for people prone to kidney stones eating large amounts consistently, and cranberry products are frequently high enough in added sugar that overdoing them can add up quickly.

GroupsBerriesHeath family (Ericaceae)Low fatLow sodiumFresh

Made intoCranberry JuiceDried Cranberries

Related foodsBlueberryBilberryHuckleberryLingonberryGooseberryBlackberry

U.S. Department of Agriculture, FoodData Central — Cranberries, raw (FDC ID 171722), 100g portion: https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/food-details/171722/nutrients Encyclopaedia Britannica — Cranberry: https://www.britannica.com/plant/cranberry