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Elaine Mandrona

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Pucker up! Cranberries are so tart they make you purse your lips like you're ready to kiss your sweetie. Perhaps they can inspire the expression of love for another, but, if you eat them, for sure, you're giving your own body nutritional love.

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One half cup of cranberries have four grams of complex carbohydrate - in other words, energy - and two grams of fibre. One third of that is soluble fibre, the kind that your body needs to lower cholesterol and promote bowel health.

Cranberries are also tops in antioxidants, in particular polyphenyls which help prevent cell damage. They are also rich in Vitamin C and contain calcium, magnesium, potassium, phosphorus, Vitamin A, and B1, B2 and B3.

They were first called "craneberries" by settlers in the New World because the shape of the flower looks like the bill of the Sandhill Crane. Natives used them for healing, in their staple food pemmican and in the dyeing of cloth.

Wild cranberries were abundant in the northeast and were a popular food with early settlers, right from the start. Whaling ships served them to sailors to prevent scurvy.

By 1816 they were being cultivated. Settlers discovered that they grew best in acid peat bogs with a supply of fresh water. Undamaged vines can last indefinitely and some in Massachusetts have been estimate to be 150 years old.

As a medicinal plant, cranberries (without sugar) can prevent and treat urinary tract infections. They prevent the bacteria from adhering to cells. Similarly, cranberries can help stop food-borne illness. In the mouth, they can prevent tooth decay.

In the blood, they stop the oxidation of LDL (bad) and raise HDL (good) cholesterol, thus preventing atherosclerosis. Generally, cranberries improve blood vessel function.

They also have anti-cancer properties. They may prevent tumors from growing or starting in the first place. An extract of chemicals naturally occurring in cranberries prevented breast cancer cells from multiplying in test tubes.

So, how do you choose the best cranberries? It's easy, just see if they bounce - really! At one time they were also called "bounce berries."

Cranberries freeze well, just bag them and pop them in. In the fridge, they'll keep for a year. They can also be dried and use much like raisins in cooking and baking. There are many creative ways to use cranberries. Use them like lemon to add zip to food, dressing or sauces.

Of course, most of us are most familiar with cranberry sauce, which is incredibly easy to make. Just combine one cup of water, one bag of cranberries and a sugar substitute. Putting sugar into cranberries can negate much of its nutritional value. I recommend a small amount of stevia, a natural plant extract.

Simply boil for five to ten minutes or until it gels, and there you have it, a ruby-red food powerhouse. Eat it as a holiday side dish, or be adventurous. You can even eat the sauce with yogurt.

One of my happiest and most vivid Maritime memories was seeing the flaming red cranberry bogs in late October at the very end o Miscou Island. This tiny red fruit is nothing short of magical.

* Elaine Mandrona is a locally based registered nutritional consulting practicioner who advises people on nutrition and weight loss, as well as a Nutritionist with Healthier for Life Nutrition and Weight Loss Centre. If you would like to reach her, please phone 874-8142.