How good is cranberry juice

[kassdog]

Just out of curiousity, I'm not a big fan of staying healthy or anything but I plan to start working out and eating right within the next month. I recently have been drinking nothing but water and cranberry juice(about 10-12 glasses of water a day and about 3/4gallon-1gallon of cranberry juice a day for the past 3 days). The reason for me drinking so oddly is a drug test and I was wondering how good it is for you. I'm drinking store brand 100% juice instead of the 27% I usually see. I'm not asking if it will work for the drug test but just if it's good for you in general and if it is I will continue to drink it after the test.

[Doug Funnie II]

Cranberries have been shown to boost the immune system and have antioxidants in them. That said, a gallon is way more than you need--you'd probably get all the positive benefits with a glass or two every day and then you could avoid all that sugar.

[kassdog]

The only reason I'm drinking so much now is for the drug test. But 2-3 glasses a day is good. I remember there isn't that much suger in it. Can't remember the exact amount but a very small amount.

[Doug Funnie II]

I guess what you consider "very little" sugar is relative. I doubt theres any brand that contains less than 10g per serving, which I would consider a lot. /images/graemlins/smirk.gif

[Assani Fisher]

Real fruit is ten times better for you than fruit juice. Juice contains a ton of excess calories and sugars. A glass of juice per day isn't bad, but its not good either. You'd be better off sticking to straight water and perhaps taking a multivitamin per day.

[maniacut]

Cranberry juice is one of the highest sources of fast acting sugars you can get. It's measured by what's called the glycemic index (GI). Cranberry juice also has some positive properties in helping the digestive system (read this in a study, basically there are some bigger/heavier molecules that help to clean the system). That said, you typically want to avoid consuming too much and consuming at the wrong time. Because of the high GI, when you drink it, you are taking in all that sugar very rapidly (and all brands i have seen have about 35g+ per cup, unless it is a light drink, in which case i'm not sure it has all the beneficial properties but is likely just watered down and artificially sweetened). The rapid intake of that sugar will spike your blood sugar which is not what you would want for normal sustained energy (instead you will spike up, and then spike down, feeling lethargic). The only times you would want this spike are first thing in the morning after waking, and post workout to replenish glycogen (energy/carbohydrate storage in your muscles).

As for helping you on your drug test, I don't know how they work but I don't see how anything other than extreme measures will be able to help you there. If you are drinking cranberry juice just for the digestive system benefits, one glass a day should be sufficient. If you want more and you workout you could have a glass or two during/right after your workout with your protein shake/meal.

[Thremp]

maniacut,

From the literature I've read it seems more people are using insulin response (IR) instead of GI to determine what to do in PWO and how to blunt random insulin spikes when not needed. Have you seen anything to the contrary? From what I see GI and IR are highly correlated but sometimes something is slightly different that'll make one thing slightly better or worse than another.

[skunkworks]

Thremp,

The correlation between glycemic index and insulin index is supposed to be generally related, but there are a lot of exceptions. There's some literature I've read that indicated baked beans had a low GI score in the 40s but a sky-high insulin index somewhere around 120. There are other noticeable differences when it comes to bakery products and other pastries that contain carbs and saturated fats. Donuts etc seem to cause a disproportionately huge insulin response.

[Thremp]

skunk,

Yeah, thats what I was getting at. I think IR is the better of the two indicies as well. Like high IR food need to be coupled with something to blunt the IR if you don't want it, or left alone if you want it.

[skunkworks]

Thremp,

That doesn't mean we want to throw away glycemic index entirely. I think from a fitness and nutrition standpoint we still care about GI to see which foods provide longer, steadier sources of energy.

Manipulating your body's insulin response is definitely something important to consider though.

Cliff's notes for everyone else: GI (glycemic index) (http://www.glycemicindex.com/) measures how fast certain foods are converted into glucose (simple sugar that our body uses for energy) in our blood. It's a very popular metric for dieters and nutrition freaks, but it is not the be-all end-all diet guide and should not primarily dictate which foods you choose to eat and which you do not. Insulin index (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insulin_index) is another metric that measures the insulin response your body has. This is of use to fitness buffs because in general we want to flood our body with insulin and amino acids postworkout to aid in recovery while minimizing it during rest periods (insulin resistance is bad and also diabetes lol (http://thebeetis.ytmnd.com/)).

[maniacut]

Thremp and skunkworks,

I had never heard of IR until now. Thanks for some education there, and I agree that for post-workout, consuming food higher on the insulin index would be better than consuming food higher on the glycemic index. Although most of the foods at the top of the lists will be the same.

[-sk00lb0y-]

Man, i think you might be talking about cranberry juice cocktail. See Mean Girls for info.