What Eating Cranberry Sauce Does To Your Body

Cranberries aren't just useful for banishing those pesky UTIs. The little red berries can also boost oral health, reduce the risk of heart disease, and amp up immunity.

Cranberries are packed with super phytonutrients, which help combat inflammation that can lead to one-too-many maladies such as diabetes, obesity, heart disease, and cancer.

Although they're super convenient and cheap, canned foods usually contain added chemicals, like BPA, that ward off the can's metallic taste from sticking to your foods. BPA was found to cause cancer and studies have even found that ingesting small amounts can lead to a higher risk of diabetes, asthma, ADD, breast and prostate cancer, infertility, and obesity.

Skip the BPA-tainted canned cranberry sauce and opt for making your own at home. The tiny crimson beads have been cited by the American Institute for Cancer Research as a food that fends off cancer. Plus, research has shown cranberries can potentially slow the progression of tumors.

Canned cranberry sauce contains 22 g of sugar in a mere 1/4-cup serving—which is bad news for your summer body goals. Most of the sweet stuff comes from high fructose corn syrup, which has been linked to obesity and skin problems.

Yup, it's true! A study by the University of California, Los Angeles tested how well rats recovering from brain injury learned new ways to get through a maze. They found that animals that consumed high fructose corn syrup took 30 percent more time to find the exit. “Our findings suggest that fructose disrupts plasticity—the creation of fresh pathways between brain cells that occurs when we learn or experience something new,” says the lead researcher.