Carmichael Training Systems: Food Marina

Food Marina

Cranberry Juice

By Alicia Kendig, RD, CTS Sports Dietitian

The bright red color of the cranberry indicates a fruit that’s packed with healthy properties. This is largely due to the high concentration of proanthycyanins and antioxidants. It's the proanthycyanins that give the berries their bright red hue. Among this tart berry’s benefits is its role in preventing and treating urinary tract infections, helping prevent kidney stones, lowering cholesterol levels, and even lowering a person’s cancer risk. With all this berry has going for it, the food industry has jumped on the cranberry, specifically cranberry juice, as a super-elixir of life. This sounded great to us until we started checking out the ingredient lists of cranberry juices offered at the supermarket. There we discovered dietary junk masquerading as juice next to high-quality products that we highly recommend.

Motor Yacht (Quality Carrier)
These foods provide good fuel sources to power your activities.

Our Pick: L&A Cranberry Delight.

What’s on Board: All of the items in this month’s Food Marina list “filtered water” as the first ingredient, which makes sense for “fruit juices.” Filtered water is what helps make these juices palatable. However, the percent of each beverage that is actually fruit juice should sway your vote. “100% fruit juice,” as the Motor Yacht is this week, means that it contains only the natural juice found in whole fruit and will therefore be naturally rich in nutrients. This cranberry juice contains both cranberry and apple juice, which is no surprise as pure cranberries will add quite a sour pucker to your mouth.

Row Boat (Empty Carrier)
Like a rowboat, these foods provide energy to help you get where you need to go, but they deliver little in the way of nutritional amenities.

Our Pick: Diet Ocean Spray Cranberry Spray (Cranberry Juice Beverage from Concentrate)

What’s on Board: When selecting any quality fruit juice, steer clear of "drinks," "-ades," "punches," "cocktails" and other cleverly worded beverages. These selections generally contain added sugars, are typically low in nutrients, and won't help fulfill your attempts to consume the USDA’s recommended daily 5-9 servings of fruits and vegetables. This Row Boat has the lowest percent fruit juice of all boats in the Marina this month, with a scarce 7% fruit juice. I wonder if that even classifies it as a fruit anything! So what is this drink made up of then? At a quick glance: artificial sweeteners, artificial colorings, preservatives, and artificially added Vitamin C. With only 5 calories for each 8 fl. oz. serving, this cranberry selection will slack your thirst and that’s about it.

Garbage Barge (Pollutant Carrier)
These foods do you more harm than good because they carry chemicals and preservatives and are often loaded with high levels of saturated fat, trans fats, or excessive amounts of sodium.

Our Pick: Langer’s Cranberry Juice Cocktail from Concentrate

What’s on Board: This drink was very quickly shunned to Garbage Barge status with the appearance of High Fructose Corn Syrup as the second ingredient listed—amazingly, ahead of the actual cranberry juice! Don’t be fooled by the 100% Vitamin C found in one serving of this juice. It’s artificially added in the form of citric and ascorbic acid. Your best bet is to find a 100% cranberry juice, which provides natural Vitamin C, as well as other important nutrients with no added sugar—only the naturally occurring sugars found in fresh fruit.

	Motor Yacht	Row Boat	Garbage Barge
Calories	140	5	140
Calories from Fat	0	0	0
Total Protein	0g	0g	0g
Saturated Fat	0g	0g	0g
Cholesterol	0mg	0mg	0mg
Carbohydrate	34g	2g	35g
Sugars	31g	2g	33g
Sodium	10mg	50mg	10mg
Vitamin C	6%	20%	100%
*Daily value based on 2,000 calorie/day diet

For more information on The Carrier Method for supplying food and nutrients to the body, take a look at Chris Carmichael's Food for Fitness, a great resource for anyone who is trying to maximize their energy levels and improve their overall health.

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