Little Life Hack, “Berry” Big Benefit

27 Abr 2016, 00:00 AM CDT

Cranberries can be simple solution to a common, irritating infection

LAKEVILLE-MIDDLEBORO, Mass.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Women today do it all and don’t have time to be slowed down by pesky
infections like urinary tract infections (UTIs). Luckily, there’s a
simple solution to stave off that unwelcome sensation, and it’s been
around for nearly a century – cranberry juice. Chock-full of powerful
nutrients, cranberries have unique anti-bacterial properties that help
prevent the bacteria that cause UTIs from sticking in the body. That’s
great news for your busy schedule, and even better for you!

A Super Pain
If you think urinary tract infections won’t
affect you, think again. According to researchers, approximately 60
percent of women will experience one UTI in their lifetimes and one in
four women will suffer a recurrence within six months^{1, 2}.

Urinary tract infections are typically remedied with a course of
low-dose antibiotics, but you may not be in the clear even after the
infection has passed. That’s because even after treatment, bacteria may
still be lurking in the bladder, leaving room for yet another infection
– and who has time for that?

A Super Problem
While UTIs may seem like a small problem,
they affect 150 million people annually worldwide, making them the
second most common type of infection³.

Ocean Spray commissioned studies in Australia and Turkey to understand
how UTIs affected quality of life across the regions and found they are
truly disruptive. In Australia, 4.8 million working hours are lost each
year due to UTIs and contribute to an economic loss of $197 million.
More than half (53 percent) of the women surveyed in Turkey said UTIs
impacted their everyday life. That number increased to 69 percent for
those who experienced a UTI in the last year.

Concurrently, the bacteria that cause UTIs are becoming increasingly
resistant to the strongest antibiotics used to treat them. This is
fueling a dangerous increase in antibiotic resistance worldwide as this
limits the body’s ability to fight off common infections like UTIs.
According to the World Health Organization antibiotic resistance is one
of the greatest challenges to public health today⁴.

A Super Fruit, A Super Solution
Despite the reports, there
is good news for consumers. Research suggests that consuming cranberries
daily may be a nutritional approach to help reduce the recurrence of
UTIs and decrease the worldwide use of antibiotics.

How exactly? Up until recently, it was thought the secret to the
cranberry’s abilities came from a single component within the fruit,
Type-A PACs, that provide an antibacterial effect by preventing bacteria
from sticking^{5, 6}. New studies point to a unique combination
of compounds in cranberries, including a newly discovered class of
compounds, xyloglucan oligosaccharides, which have similar
anti-bacterial properties against E. coli as PACs⁷.
This means there are multiple, powerful elements within cranberries
working hard for your health.

So the next time you head to the store, consider stocking up on
cranberry juice – one 8-ounce glass (236 mL) of cranberry juice or ¼ cup
(40 g) of dried cranberries daily could be one of the best ways to
prevent irksome infections like UTIs.

About Cranberry Health Benefits

For more than 85 years, we have been actively researching the
cranberry’s unique healthy benefits to deliver products that not only
taste good, but are good for you. Cranberries are an exceptional fruit
that provide one-of-a-kind health benefits. Besides helping consumers
meet the recommended daily intake of fruit, consuming cranberries may be
a nutritional approach in helping to reduce certain infections in the
urinary tract and stomach. This is increasingly important as the
bacteria that cause these infections are becoming highly resistant to
the strongest antibiotics used to treat them, fueling what the World
Health Organization believes is one of the greatest challenges to public
health today – antibiotic resistance.

About Ocean Spray

Ocean Spray is a vibrant agricultural cooperative owned by more than 700
cranberry and grapefruit growers in the United States, Canada and Chile
who have helped preserve the family farming way of life for generations.
Formed in 1930, Ocean Spray is now the world’s leading producer of
cranberry juices, juice drinks and dried cranberries and is the
best-selling brand in the North American bottled juice category. The
cooperative’s cranberries are currently featured in more than a thousand
great-tasting, good-for-you products in over 100 countries worldwide.
With more than 2,000 employees and nearly 20 cranberry receiving and
processing facilities, Ocean Spray is committed to managing our business
in a way that respects our communities, employees and the environment.
For more information visit: www.oceanspray.com
or www.oceanspray.coop.

¹ Foxman B. Urinary tract infection syndromes: occurrence,
recurrence, bacteriology, risk factors, and disease burden. Infect Dis
Clin North Am 2014;28:1–13.
² Wang CH, Fang CC, Chen NC,
Liu SS, Yu PH, Wu TY, Chen WT, Lee CC, Chen SC. Cranberry-containing
products for prevention of urinary tract infections in susceptible
populations: a systemic review and meta-analysis of randomized
controlled trials. Arch Intern Med 2012;172:988–96.
³
American Urological Association. “Adult UTI:
Epidemiology/Socioeconomics/Education.” Available at: https://www.auanet.org/education/adult-uti.cfm
⁴
Antimicrobial resistance: global report on surveillance 2014; WHO; http://www.who.int/drugresistance/documents/surveillancereport/en/
⁵
Howell AB, Reed JD, Krueger CG, Winterbottom R, Cunningham DG, Leahy M.
A-type cranberry proanthocyanidins and uropathogenic bacterial
anti-adhesion activity. Phytochemistry, 2005; 66(18): 2281-2291.
⁶
de Llano DG, Esteban-Fernández A, Sánchez-Patán F, Martínlvarez PJ,
Moreno-Arribas MV, Bartolomé B. Anti-Adhesive Activity of Cranberry
Phenolic Compounds and Their Microbial-Derived Metabolites against
Uropathogenic Escherichia coli in Bladder Epithelial Cell Cultures. Int
J Mol Sci. 2015 May 27;16(6):12119-30.
⁷ Hotchkiss AT,
Nunez A, Strahan GD, Chau H, White A, Marais J, Hom K, Vakkalanka MS, Di
R, Yam KL, Khoo C. Cranberry
Xyloglucan Structure and Inhibition of Escherichia coli Adhesion to
Epithelial Cells. J Agric Food Chem. 2015 Jun 17;63(23):5622-33.