I don’t know about you but one of the things about the B plan that is challenging for me is the lack of beneficial fruits to choose from. Let’s see… we got cranberries, plums, pineapple, watermelon, and grapes for B secretors… lucky nonnies get several more. That’s not a whole lot of choices for us secretin’ folks and many of those fruits are available fresh only seasonally for those living in temperate climates.

So I have been looking at easy, doable ways of increasing my bene fruit consumption and am beginning with… the cranberry. Being one of only 3 fruits native to the United States (blueberries and the Concord grape being the other two), cranberries are chock full of antioxidants that neutralize free radicals. And the cranberry is listed as a super-beneficial in some of the BTD health library series. A super-beneficial did you say? Hey… even better!

Little round ruby of a fruit that freezes so well when fresh… I always stock up on organic raw cranberries during the winter season. However… this year the fresh organic berries that were available in my neighborhood were pitiful… almost half of the bags were filled with rotten berries. So I didn’t stock up like usual. I am looking for a small organic grower for next season that will ship fresh by the pound but have yet to find one.

In the meantime… I am taking the advice of a dear friend and adding a splash of unsweetened cranberry juice to my drinking water in the mornings. I am not a juice person, mind you, so drinking a large glass of sweetened cranberry juice loaded with sugar is so distasteful to me. I know… I know… there are many cran juices out there sweetened with white grape juice… but have you ever tasted just white grape juice before? I have. It tastes just like sugar water. Blech! But… the unsweetened juice with water… heaven…. Adds a crisp tartness to the water that is not too sour. And the color… oh the color!!! It makes me so happy to drink a beverage of such a shimmering shade of transparent red. I smile just thinking about it.

So… give it a whirl! Perhaps it will make your heart sing, too.