We’re not exaggerating when we say that cranberries are superhero berries. They’re rich in vitamins and antioxidants, which help to maintain a healthy digestive and urinary system.
That said, regularly getting your hands on fresh cranberries can be difficult.
Table of Contents
1. Why Is Cranberry Powder Good for You?
1.1. Improves Dental Health
1.2. Protects the Gastrointestinal Tract
1.3. Helps With Blood Sugar Control
1.4. Improves Heart Health
2. How Do You Use Cranberry Powder?
2.1. Liven up Your Breakfast Options
2.2. Level up Your Snacks and Baked Foods
3. What’s the Difference Between Cranberry Fruit Powder and Cranberry Juice Powder?
4. Wild vs. Cultivated Cranberries, Which Is a Better Source?
5. Draw on the Antioxidant Power of Wild Cranberry Powder
Enter our very own freeze-dried and freshly ground cranberries.
Or, in simpler terms, Organic Wild Cranberry Powder.
It packs all the goodness of cranberries, but it’s much easier to access, consume and store all year round.
We freeze our cranberries when they’re the most ripe, retaining about 97% of the fruit’s original nutrients — so you can enjoy their wonderful benefits whether it be spring, summer, or winter.
Let’s take a deeper look at these health benefits and:
1. Why Is Cranberry Powder Good for You?
Cranberries are a rich source of:
- Vitamin C: A strong antioxidant that protects the body and aids in wound healing
- Vitamin K: Essential for blood clotting and wound healing
- Vitamin E: Another strong antioxidant that protects the skin from UV damage
- Manganese: An essential trace mineral that reduces irritation and swelling and supports a healthy metabolism
- Polyphenols, including the highest amount of A-type proanthocyanidins (procyanidins): Protect the body from free radical damage
Perhaps the most well-known result of cranberry powder is better urinary tract health. The antioxidant superpower of cranberries is what protects against urinary tract issues.
The antioxidants in cranberry powder also support dental, gut, blood sugar and heart health.
Improves Dental Health
Protects the Gastrointestinal Tract
The procyanidin found in cranberries blocks H. pylori bacteria from multiplying in the gut lining. This bacterium is one of the most common disease-causing microbes in the human gut.
H. pylori breaks down the stomach’s protective lining, leading to gut issues such as peptic ulcers, inflammation of the stomach lining, and gastric malignancy.
Besides being microorganism-fighting, this antioxidant also blocks the activity of inflammatory enzymes in the colon. As such, it protects the colon from oxidative damage. Inflammation damages the colon lining and causes inflammatory bowel diseases.
Lastly, we now know that the good bacteria in your gut, the gut microbiome, are crucial to immune, nervous system and hormonal health.
We love that procyanidin supports the growth of good gut bacteria. This helps to balance the breakdown and excretion of fats and toxins from the gut. The result is a healthy metabolism that burns energy efficiently.
Helps With Blood Sugar Control
Speaking of energy, sugar (glucose) is one of the most abundant energy sources in the body. The careful balance of glucose is essential for the optimal function of a healthy body. It depends on two hormones: glucagon and insulin.
Procyanidin plays a role in activating the production of intestinal hormones. These hormones, insulin and glucagon, maintain the glucose balance in the body.
An imbalance in blood sugar levels can cause fatigue, weakness, irritability and headaches. Conversely, when glucose levels are balanced, it gives you energy and prevents you from storing too much fat.
Improves Heart Health
Besides controlling sugar, the antioxidants in cranberries also help to balance the fat levels in your body.
In this way, they protect the heart by preventing the accumulation of fat in blood vessels, the dominant cause of heart disease.
Procyanidin achieves this fat balance in two ways:
- It limits the amount of fat absorbed into the blood from the digested food in the intestine.
- It regulates the release and transport of fats from the liver and intestine to the rest of the body.
Procyanidin also contributes to heart health by:
- Regulating glucose levels, which can damage blood vessels and lead to heart disease.
- Controlling inflammatory enzymes, since a buildup of inflammation can lead to heart disease.
- Increasing good cholesterol (HDL cholesterol) which helps to remove bad cholesterol from the blood.
2. How Do You Use Cranberry Powder?
When made from the entire wild-grown fruit, cranberry powder is very nutritionally potent.
By including the whole cranberry, skin and all, cranberry fruit powder preserves nearly all the antioxidants in this powerhouse. These antioxidants occur in high amounts on the skin and give them their tart taste.
We’ll talk later about the benefits of cranberry fruit harvested from the wild.
Adding 1–2 tablespoons of Freeze-Dried Organic Wild Cranberry Powder to any meal with a sweet flavour profile is an easy way to get your daily serving of cranberries.
Liven up Your Breakfast Options
Breakfast is a great opportunity for boosting your health with the antioxidant properties of cranberries. You can start by adding cranberry powder to your yoghurt or porridge.
Some other simple breakfast options include:
-
Chia Pudding with Cranberry Powder: This is a quick breakfast.
- Whisk together your chia seeds, yoghurt or plant milk, maple syrup, vanilla and cranberry powder.
- Refrigerate for a few hours or overnight and enjoy.
-
Cranberry Smoothie: Perfect for when you’re on the go.
- Blend banana, frozen strawberries, peanut butter, plant milk, maple syrup and cranberry powder together. Enjoy a rich antioxidant smoothie.
- If you’ve just worked out, consider boosting the protein content of this smoothie with a protein powder.
“I’m relatively new to these powders. The taste is so intensely pleasant that I could eat an entire pack with a spoon while sitting in front of the TV. Thanks to LOOV Food, I am back into smoothies and they add new life to a boring breakfast.”
Jacques-Alain Finkeltroc, USA
Level up Your Snacks and Baked Foods
Take advantage of your sweet treats and double up on the nutrition they deliver.
- Zucchini Brownies with Cranberry Cream: The secret here is the cream. After baking your brownies, whip cream cheese, whipping cream, sugar and cranberry powder together. Decorate the brownies with the cranberry cream. Enjoy the delicious sweet and tart contrast.
- Cranberry Peanut Butter Bliss Balls: Get rid of that afternoon energy slump with this no-cook snack. It’s full of protein and antioxidants. All you need is cranberry powder, peanut butter, dates, agave, coconut oil and ground oats.
Salt can also balance out the tartness of cranberry powder. Here are some savoury cranberry powder condiment ideas:
- Cranberry aioli sauce: Mix minced garlic with cranberry powder and mayonnaise. Serve with carpaccio or any other thinly sliced meat.
- Rosemary cranberry spread: Combine cream cheese, garlic powder, cranberry powder, maple syrup, freshly chopped rosemary and freshly cracked salt and pepper. Serve with a baguette or crackers.
3. What’s the Difference Between Cranberry Fruit Powder and Cranberry Juice Powder?
Our wild cranberry fruit powder is ground from the entire fruit (skin, pulp, seeds and juice) after it’s been freeze-dried.
Fun fact: Some competitors dehydrate the fruit first, or simply create pomace powders from the fruit — which isn’t as good!
Cranberry juice powder, on the other hand, comes from spray drying cranberry juice concentrate.
Our Freeze-Dried Organic Wild Cranberry Powder is the superior product because it retains nearly all the nutrients present in the fresh fruit.
Cranberry juice powder undergoes exposure to high temperatures in the process of turning it into powder. As a result, it loses a significant amount of its antioxidant content.
In the following table, we compare freeze-dried cranberry juice powder to cranberry fruit powder:
| Freeze-Dried Cranberry Fruit Powder | Cranberry Juice Powder |
| Contains all the nutrients present in cranberry skin, including procyanidin, fibre, protein, potassium, omega-3, 6 and 9 | Lacks key nutrients because cranberry skin isn’t part of the juice-making process |
| Contains no added sugars | Contains maltodextrin, a starch used as a carrier in spray drying, which breaks down into sugar and spikes blood sugar levels |
| Retains about 97% of the nutrients and antioxidants present in the fresh fruit | Loses a significant amount of antioxidants during spray drying |
| Is not soluble due to the fibre in the berry skin, pulp and seed | Is soluble because it lacks the fibre from the skin and pulp |
💡 Expert Tip: To ensure that you’re purchasing cranberry powder that is packed with nutrients:
- Check the nutritional information on the back of the package. It should have approximately 36 mg of antioxidants per serving—the recommended effective daily amount.
- Ensure that the package indicates lab testing of antioxidant content. Look for keywords that refer to antioxidants. These include proanthocyanidins, PACs, anthocyanins and polyphenols.
- Confirm the source of the cranberries, which the package should clearly indicate. This gives you peace of mind that you can trace the product to its source.
Here’s an example of what to look for on your label.
4. Wild vs. Cultivated Cranberries, Which Is a Better Source?
Wild cranberries contain significantly more micronutrients than cultivated cranberries, which are grown agriculturally — and there’s a pretty interesting reason as to why.
The growing season for wild cranberries is during spring and summer. We pick our cranberries in Estonia, which is close to the Arctic Circle. Here, we experience what’s called Polar Day in the summer.
Polar Day consists of long days that don’t get dark. Believe it or not, this is a huge benefit for the wild cranberries. They use this time to their advantage, to fill up with antioxidants to survive the cold winter.
At LOOV Food, we embrace this gift of nature by handpicking these organic cranberries while they have the most antioxidants. We then preserve as much of nature’s goodness through freeze-drying.
You can learn a little more about wild and cultivated cranberries from this infographic:
Wild cranberries produce a better quality cranberry powder because they:
- Grow in pristine, unpolluted bogs and are ecologically friendly
- Have a high antioxidant content. You’ll find 2.58 mg/100 g of antioxidants in fresh wild berries compared to 0.19 mg/100 g of antioxidants in the cultivated berries
- Have a stronger taste and darker pigmented skin and flesh, indicating a higher concentration of antioxidants
- Are handpicked and grow naturally with no pesticides or fertilisers
Draw on the Antioxidant Power of Wild Cranberry Powder
Cranberry powder delivers the nutritional benefits of cranberries in an easy form. These antioxidants and nutrients keep your mouth, gut, heart and urinary tract healthy.
That said, not all cranberry powders are equal in effectiveness.
Look for cranberry powders that use the entire fruit and the freeze-drying process. Additionally, wild cranberries pack a stronger antioxidant punch than their cultivated cousins.
If you’re ready to experience the goodness of cranberry powder, try our Freeze-Dried Organic Wild Cranberry Powder. It comes from cranberries that grow in the untouched bogs of Estonia and Finland. Our cranberry powder is non-GMO and has no additives, fillers or added sugar.
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