Cranberry for colds: treatment for fever, sore throat, to strengthen the immune system

Is it possible to have cranberries at a temperature

Cranberries are not only possible, but also necessary to be consumed at a temperature. First of all, this berry is great for making fruit drinks. Cranberry juice can reduce intoxication in the body and allow the patient to sweat profusely. This helps to lower the temperature.

Cranberry and all drinks made from it can enhance the effect of medications that are used for fever or any colds.

The effectiveness of northern berries is manifested not only in lowering temperatures. She also:

reduces the activity of pathogenic microflora;
compensates for the loss of water in the body;
softens coughing attacks and unpleasant irritation in the throat.

All these results significantly alleviate the patient’s condition and also speed up recovery. In addition, cranberry juices and decoctions give strength and increase vigor. This helps the body fight disease.

Northern berry perfectly helps get rid of the following symptoms:

aches throughout the body and weakness;
cough and sore throat;
runny nose;
fever.

Therefore, the use of northern red berries for colds is completely justified. In addition, cranberry helps improve appetite and has an analgesic effect.

Besides fever and colds, cranberry drinks and mixtures are great for treating:

urinary infections;
gynecological problems;
stomatitis;
otitis;
hypertension;
headaches and toothaches;
chronic fatigue;
obesity.

It is important to take drinks regularly and prepare them correctly. The less the cranberry is subjected to heat treatment, the more beneficial properties it retains. Dried berries are also useful if processed correctly.

How to brew cranberries correctly

To obtain high efficiency, it is necessary to properly prepare a decoction of this berry. Cranberry tea works great. To brew it, you need to take fresh, frozen or dried cranberries and grind them in a blender. If you plan to brew a whole fresh berry, you will need to pierce it to release the juice. Then pour boiling water and leave covered for half an hour.

If you have ready-made cranberry juice, you can mix it with strong tea and get a cranberry tea drink with a lot of beneficial properties.

Important! When brewing, it is better not to use boiling water so as not to reduce the benefits of the berry. A temperature of 70–80 degrees is sufficient. If you brew berries with boiling water, the amount of vitamin C will decrease significantly.

Contraindications

Contraindications to consuming cranberries are minimal. The berry can be consumed by almost all people, regardless of age and concomitant pathologies. But there are also categories of people for whom this method of treatment is not suitable. This is most often due to the acidity of the cranberries. Contraindications:

diseases of the genitourinary system;
kidney problems;
diseases of the digestive system;
problems with stool.

If you have one or more diseases, you should use this product carefully, and it is better to consult your doctor. Experts also do not advise eating northern berries for those who have gout or pregnancy with severe toxicosis.

Most often, cranberries are not suitable for people who have gastritis with high acidity, as well as peptic ulcers of the gastrointestinal tract.

As for children, pediatricians do not recommend introducing cranberries into a baby’s diet until they are one year old. After a year, the amount of cranberries in the diet should be very small, literally 10 grams per day. Be sure to observe the baby's reaction. Allergies can also occur to cranberries, and therefore you should pay attention to the skin. If you are breastfeeding, you should consult a specialist about introducing cranberries into your diet as a medicine or strengthening agent.

Cranberry juice recipes for colds

Morse is the main drink made from sour berries. It has an antipyretic and restorative effect on the body. If prepared correctly, a sick person with a fever can drink it as much as they want throughout the day, which will help restore water balance in the body and keep the temperature under control.

The recipe for cranberry juice is simple:

Take 300–400 grams of fresh berries.
Place in an enamel pan.
Crush into a mass similar to puree.
Squeeze the puree so that the juice is separated.
Pour 1.5 liters of water into the puree.
Boil.
Strain the resulting drink.
Dissolve 180 grams of sugar in it.
As soon as the fruit drink has cooled, add the juice squeezed from the puree.

Advice! It is recommended to drink this drink warm, so the substances will begin to act more actively and the effect will be achieved faster.

There is another simple recipe for making fruit juice, but without boiling. The recipe is simple:

Take fresh or frozen berries.
Pour boiling water over it.
Puree.
Add boiled but cooled water so that the color of the drink is bright red.
Strain.
Add honey.

A drink without boiling helps preserve the maximum amount of vitamins and nutrients.

How to collect

The shelf life and usefulness of cranberries depend on the time of harvest. The harvesting of berries takes place in 3 stages: in September, after the first frost, in early spring. Berries collected in the fall have maximum healing properties. When collecting fruits, it is important to take into account the degree of their ripeness, since the diuretic effect depends on this. If cranberries are collected in the spring after the snow melts, the berries are sweeter, but the content of nutrients in them is less than in the fall. When harvesting berries, you need to take into account the growing area. The plant tends to absorb harmful substances from the environment, which accumulate in the fruits.

Cranberry juice for sore throat

When you have a sore throat, it is important not only to bring down the temperature, but also to remove the pathogenic flora in the throat area. Popular recipe for sore throat:

Squeeze a glass of cranberry juice.
Add 3 tablespoons of honey.
Take a tablespoon orally or gargle.

In addition to this drink, you can also drink simple cranberry juice. Gargling with fruit juice helps reduce pain, remove inflammation and alleviate the main symptoms.

The main substance that is involved in the fight against sore throat is triterpentines. These are natural antibiotics that are part of cranberries and their juice. These substances help in the fight against such microorganisms:

streptococci;
staphylococci;
enterococci.

When gargling and ingesting, inflammatory processes are stopped. This prevents the infection from spreading further into the lower respiratory tract. Thus, complications such as pneumonia or abscesses do not occur.

Beneficial properties of cranberries

Cranberries contain a large number of useful substances. The berries are enriched with potassium, calcium, iodine, glucose, sodium and other microelements important for the body.

Cranberry has gained versatility in the treatment and prevention of diseases due to its rich composition. The benefits of the plant for the body are as follows:

has a diuretic effect;
helps resist pathogenic microorganisms;
reduces body temperature;
normalizes metabolism;
strengthens the immune system;
reduces cholesterol levels;
removes harmful salts;
strengthens the nervous system;
normalizes skin condition.

Features of diuretic action

The effectiveness of treatment and prevention of diseases largely depends on the removal of toxins from the body. Cranberry has earned many positive reviews precisely because of its diuretic effect. Healing berries help remove toxic substances, harmful salts and sand. The complex diuretic effect improves the functioning of the urinary system. The benefits of regularly consuming fruits as a diuretic are as follows:

gentle cleansing of sand, salt and small concretions (stones);
normalization of kidney function;
increasing resistance to infections;
improving blood supply to the renal vascular system.

When treating, it is important to take into account that in the presence of large stones, cranberry, due to its diuretic effect, can provoke their movement. As a result, a person develops renal colic, which is accompanied by severe pain and without appropriate therapy can lead to serious complications. Therefore, before starting treatment, you need to visit a doctor and undergo an examination to rule out urolithiasis.

Fruit juice to strengthen the immune system

To strengthen the immune system, both classic cranberry juice and various drinks with the addition of other fruits and berries are suitable.

You can use a simple mixture of fresh berries, crushed in a blender and mixed with honey in a one-to-one ratio.

And also to strengthen the immune system, it is useful to drink 100 ml of the following cocktail every day:

Take cranberries.
Grind in a blender.
Dilute with boiled cold water in a ratio of 1 to 1.
Add some honey.

A ginger drink using cranberries is also perfect:

Brew 1 teaspoon of green tea.
Add ginger, a little cinnamon, 2 cloves and 2 pinches of cardamom.
Grind cranberries and add to tea.
Add 3 lemon slices.
Cool the tea and then add honey.

The combination of cranberries with citrus fruits will provide additional immunity protection. For this recipe you need to take 200 grams of cranberries, as well as one piece each of lemon and orange, and a spoonful of honey. Citrus fruits need to be chopped and then chopped together with cranberries in a blender. Add honey and stir everything. Take a teaspoon 3 times a day. Can be diluted with water and drunk.

But in terms of vitamin content, fruit juice, which is made exclusively from fresh cranberries, still comes first. You can use frozen berries, as they also retain their properties.

Cranberry

You won’t find a more delicious berry for jam and a healthier berry for promoting health than cranberries. It is suitable for tea, and for sauerkraut, and for colds, and with honey, and with sugar, and by mixing its juice with others, for example, carrot, beetroot and pomegranate in equal proportions, you will get a wonderful vitamin remedy in the cold winter days. Cranberries are suitable for old people and children, on the table and as a decoration for a cake or pie. In a word, this universal berry is just asking to be grown in the garden. Yes, despite the popular belief that cranberries grow only in forests, you can successfully grow this vitamin product yourself. Visit a plant nursery and purchase the cranberry variety that you like.

What soil is needed to grow cranberries?

This is the first question you need to answer before you start growing cranberries. On what soil will you have a guaranteed harvest of this berry? Cranberries love clay soils with peat (pH 3-4.5) and tolerate waterlogging well. Therefore, try to find out what kind of soil is on your site. If it is sandy, then you will need to think about creating a special bed. Try piercing the soil with a knife and notice whether the grains of sand crunch. And if a thin cord can be rolled out of a damp lump of earth, then the soil is clayey.

On heavy clay soil and any other soil, you can make a bed with high-moor peat. Remove the top ball of soil 1 meter wide, 20-25 centimeters deep, and fill the hole with high-moor peat. If you don’t have one, try a mixture of random parts of peat, sawdust, bark, fallen pine needles, and rotted forest litter. Add also a small amount of sand. Compact the high-moor peat or mixture. Citric acid can be used to acidify the soil.

Which cranberry variety should I choose for planting?

The most suitable for growing on a personal plot is the four-petalled cranberry, which is also called swamp cranberry because it loves damp places. This is a low creeping subshrub. Its root system will develop near the soil surface. This variety does not have root hairs. On the roots there is mycorrhiza - a special microflora, with the help of which soil nutrients are better used. The leaves have a thick waxy coating, the bottom leaves are silvery in color, and the upper part remains green even in winter. Four-petalled cranberries are common in nature. The varieties in greatest demand are: Bennett, Hoves, Beckwith, Early Black. Bennett and Howes are lightweight, while Beckwith is resistant to viruses and rot, and Beckwith is very easy to harvest: the berries are easily removed from the tall, straight stems. Early Black is the most popular of the early varieties and has bell-shaped berries.

Planting cranberries. Care. Watering

Plant the seedlings at an arbitrary distance from each other, depending on how many seedlings you have. Mulch the bed with sand or pine needles - a layer of about 3-4 cm. When creeping plants are sprinkled with sand, more erect bushes grow among them, on which berries are formed. Sanding should be done in the spring, when the cranberries have not yet begun to grow. This is done every two to three years. Water the plants regularly and generously, acidify the water a little, then the cranberries will grow quickly and take root where they touch the ground.

During the growing season, it is recommended to periodically, but briefly, flood cranberries - this activates root growth and increases yield. Due to soil drainage, subsequent drying is necessary. Until September, it is necessary to maintain high soil moisture and avoid crusting. The degree of watering depends on the composition of the soil. You will have to feed cranberries with nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium fertilizers - the size of the berries will then be larger. When the bushes begin to stretch upward, they need to be trimmed. Cranberry plantations live up to 60 years.

Cranberry plantings must be weeded three times during the growing season, when the bushes become strong. The first cranberry harvest can be obtained only in the third or fourth years. Its berries range from pink to dark red, 9-12 mm in diameter. Harvesting should be done in late autumn, when the berries are dense and hard. During storage they ripen and become soft. Cranberries can be left to overwinter on the bushes; in the spring they will be sweet, but such berries cannot be stored after defrosting.

The berries are harvested with scoops and packaged in bags or boxes. How to propagate cranberries?

Cranberries are propagated by cuttings taken from mother plants. If the latter are absent, then natural thickets can be used. Just don't take cuttings from perennial branches, because they won't produce roots. Plant 2 cuttings per hole to the depth of a full bayonet of a shovel. You should leave 2-4 cm of cuttings on the soil surface. Generously water the soil around the cutting.