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Is 2 glasses of cranberry juice a day too much?

Research shows that the juice may lower the risk of heart disease and prevent urinary tract infections. But that doesn't mean you should go overboard. Because it's high in sugar and a poor source of dietary fiber, cranberry juice consumption should be capped at one or two glasses per day.

healthyeating.sfgate.com - Daily Limit of Cranberry Juice - Healthy Eating | SF Gate

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Sweet, tart and brimming over with potential health benefits, a glass of cranberry juice is a nice change from plain old water. Research shows that the juice may lower the risk of heart disease and prevent urinary tract infections. But that doesn't mean you should go overboard. Because it's high in sugar and a poor source of dietary fiber, cranberry juice consumption should be capped at one or two glasses per day.

Potential Benefits of Cranberry Juice

Cranberry juice has long been celebrated for its ability to treat and prevent urinary infections, or UTIs. Whether or not such praise is warranted is still being examined by the scientific community. A 2016 study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition concluded that consuming a glass of cranberry juice every day lowered the number of UTI occurrences in women who had a recent history of infection. Yet, in April of 2018, the National Institute for Health and Care released a report stating that cranberry juice does not treat or prevent UTIs. The conclusion, according to the Cleveland Clinic, is that although cranberry juice does contain an active ingredient that can prevent bacteria from adhering to the bladder wall, it does not contain nearly enough to make a difference. Cranberry juice may have more profound effects on heart health, according to a 2016 study by the Agricultural Research Service. Study participants who drank two glasses per day had lower levels of several cardiometabolic risk factors at the end of eight weeks than participants who didn't drink the juice. In another study published in Nutrition Research in 2015, people who drank a glass of cranberry juice daily had lower levels of C reactive protein – an inflammation marker and risk factor for heart disease.

Drawbacks of Too Much Cranberry Juice

A glass a day of cranberry juice might do you some good – at least, it won't do you any harm. But drinking several glasses a day can be problematic. All juices are a source of calories, and too many calories in the diet lead to weight gain. An 8-ounce glass of cranberry juice contains 116 calories. That's not a lot of calories – about 6 percent of the calories the average moderately active adult woman needs in a day. However, when you times that by three, four or more, the calories add up. The problem with liquid calories is that they don't fill you up as well as calories from food. If you're drinking a lot of cranberry juice on top of the foods you already eat in a day, you're likely to gain weight. Cranberry juice gets all of its calories from sugar, with 30 grams in an 8-ounce glass. That's actually more sugar than you'd get from 8 ounces of cola. Although the sugar in cranberry juice is natural, it still affects your blood sugar in the same way added sugars do. Simple sugars from fruit juices are absorbed into the bloodstream quickly, leading to a quick burst of energy followed by an energy trough. This sort of repeated rise and fall in blood sugar is a risk factor of Type 2 diabetes. The lack of dietary fiber in juice is a big part of the problem. This "roughage" is the fibrous part of fruits that is necessary for good digestive health and the prevention of colon cancer. Fiber helps slow the absorption of sugar into the bloodstream to help maintain steady blood sugar levels.

Moderation Is Key

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