Cranberries Linked To Longer Life Span, Study

Researchers have found that the various health benefits cranberries provide lead to a longer lifespan, according to a National Institute of Ageing in Baltimore study.

The study was conducted on two group of a kind of fruit fly called Drosophila. Each group consisting of approximately 200 flies were fed sugar-rich food. One group was given two percent of cranberry extract along with the sugary diet. Observations were made on three stages of the flies' lives - health span, transition span and senescence span. In each stage, the flies were transferred to new vials and the number of flies dying was recorded on each transition.

According to a Wall Street Journal report, researchers found that the flies that fed on the cranberry extract led a 25 percent longer lives than flies that didn't eat the extract in the first observation stage. In the other two stages, flies that were fed cranberry extract survived 30 percent longer that flies of the other group.

A study held in November yielded similar results and found that cranberries provide unique bioactive compounds that may help reduce the incidence of certain infections, improve hearth health and temper inflammation.

"Hundreds of studies show that the bioactive compounds found in cranberries improve health," said Jeffrey Blumberg, one of the researchers, in a news release. "For example, the polyphenols found in cranberries have been shown to promote a health urinary tract and exert protective benefits for cardiovascular disease and other chronic conditions."

Although cranberry products often have sugar added to them, even then they usually have a comparable amount of sugar to other unsweetened fruit juices and dried food products.