Cranberries, Urinary Tract Infections, and Other Things You Don’t Want to Talk About at the Thanksgiving Table

OK, maybe a good urinary tract infection is not the first thing you’d choose to discuss with Thanksgiving guests, but the knowledge that cranberries really can prevent the painful medical condition can still be a source of quiet inspiration. Geezer finds it sad that the modesty of inlaws precludes one from exhibiting his knowlege of proanthocyanidins, chemical compounds that bind to harmful bacteria, forming what the L.A. Times calls a
"Teflon-like" coating around them. The coating prevents the bacteria
from sticking to gastrointestinal and urinary tract walls, impeding
infections. And then there are the studies–one published in the British Medical Journal in 2001 showed that
women who drank a couple of ounces of cranberry juice daily for six
months had a 20% lower risk of urinary tract infections, compared with
women in a control group; and another published in the Canadian Journal of
Urology in 2002 showed that just 20% of women who drank three glasses
of cranberry juice daily for a year experienced urinary tract infection
symptoms, compared with 32% of women who drank a placebo. They too, must remain shrouded in silence.
Read more about the amazing anti-urinary tract infection powers of cranberries in the Los Angeles Times.