Cranberry, a Natural Antioxidant Whole Food

By Kyle J. Norton

Antioxidants are stable molecules that inhibited free radicals that cause oxidative stress if overexpressed.

Oxidative stress-related conditions are the class of diseases associated with cellular damage, including the alternation of cell DNA, and damage of lipid and protein.

Oxidative stress can be acute or chronic. Acute oxidative stress caused by suddenly burst of free radical due to stress or external sources, in most cases can be inhibited by increasing antioxidant enzymes by the lung.

Chronic oxidative stress is caused by the unbalanced ratio of free radicals and antioxidant enzymes produced by our body. The condition is either caused by oner expression of free radicals or depletion of antioxidants enzymes or both.

There are many risk factors that cause oxidative stress. However, in the concerns of the prevalence of chronic diseases associated with the Western diet, some researchers suggested that the link of the oxidative diseases in the Western world may be resulted by the promotion of the Western diet over the past few decades.

The list of chronic diseases caused by cell oxidation is very long, including atherosclerosis, cancer, diabetics, rheumatoid arthritis, post-ischemic perfusion injury, myocardial infarction, cardiovascular diseases, chronic inflammation, stroke.

Most common causes of oxidative stress are overexpression of free radicals in the induction of a chain reaction.

Due to the unstable nature of free radicals with unpaired electrons in the outer ring, free radicals are ready to donate or intercept the electrons from other atoms, leading to a chain reaction which can not be stopped until the outring electron are either paired or inhibited by antioxidants.

Contrast to the general belief, the damage caused by free radicals are overly exaggerated, under normal condition, free radicals produced by the internal or external source are needed by our body on cellular responses and immune function.

However, overexpression of free radicals also known as oxidative stress can be a danger to our health.

Cranberry is an evergreen dwarf shrub, genus Vaccinium, belongings to the family Ericaceae, native to Northern America and Southern Asia. Because of its health benefits, cranberry has been cultivated in some parts of the world for commercial profit and used in traditional and herbal medicine to treat wounds, urinary disorders, diarrhea, diabetes, stomach ailments, and liver problems.

On finding a potential compound for the treatment of diseases associated with oxidative stress, researchers examined the effect of cranberry juice (CJ) antioxidant activity.

According to the tested analysis on the consumption of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and ascorbate with CJ antioxidants or without CJ (control) given to 10 normal individuals after an overnight fast that was measured 6 times over 7 h after the consumption of a single 240 mL.
* People who consumed HFCS and ascorbate showed a slight decrease in plasma antioxidant capacity at all time points and increase of oxidative stress.

* Compared to high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and ascorbate, CJ increased the plasma antioxidant capacity significantly at all time points.

* Most importantly, levels of postprandial triglycerides associated with oxidative stress and antioxidant activity was significantly lower in the CJ group compared to.the high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and ascorbate group.

Based on the findings, researchers aid, "Cranberries are an excellent source of high-quality antioxidants and should be examined in human supplementation studies".

Taken altogether, cranberry may be considered a remedy for the enhancement of the antioxidant activity, pending to the confirmation of the larger sample size and multicenter human study.

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Author Biography
Kyle J. Norton (Scholar, Master of Nutrition, All right reserved)
Health article writer and researcher; Over 10.000 articles and research papers have been written and published online, including worldwide health, ezine articles, article base, health blogs, self-growth, best before it's news, the karate GB daily, etc.,.
Named TOP 50 MEDICAL ESSAYS FOR ARTISTS & AUTHORS TO READ by Disilgold.com Named 50 of the best health Tweeters Canada - Huffington Post
Nominated for shorty award over last 4 years
Some articles have been used as references in medical research, such as international journal Pharma and Bioscience, ISSN 0975-6299.

Sources
(1) Cranberries and cranberry products: powerful in vitro, ex vivo, and in vivo sources of antioxidants by Vinson JA1, Bose P, Proch J, Al Kharrat H, Samman N. (PubMed)
(2) Pure Polyphenols and Cranberry Juice High in Anthocyanins Increase Antioxidant Capacity in Animal Organs by Bariexca T1, Ezdebski J1, Redan BW2, Vinson J. (PubMed)