What Are the Health Benefits of Concord Grape Juice & Cranberry Juice?
If you're looking to up your fruit intake, consider incorporating 100 percent fruit juice into your diet. Concord grape juice -- the dominant type of grape juice on the market -- and cranberry juice both fit into a healthful diet, and both juices offer nutritional value in the form of phytonutrients and vitamin C. However, cranberry juice offers additional vitamins not found in Concord grape juice.
A glass of cranberry juice over ice on a bamboo mat outside. (Image: Kung_Mangkorn/iStock/Getty Images)Resveratrol
Concord grapes and cranberries -- and their respective juices -- contain resveratrol, a beneficial phytonutrient. Like vitamin C, resveratrol acts as an antioxidant. It also plays a role in cancer prevention, explains the Linus Pauling Institute. Resveratrol helps control healthy cell growth, promotes apoptosis -- the planned destruction of old or damaged cells -- and regulates liver enzyme activity to reduce the level of carcinogens in your body. Including more resveratrol in your diet might also promote cardiovascular health -- it reduces harmful inflammation and promotes healthy blood vessel function.
Beneficial Anthocyanins
Concord grape and cranberry juices get their vivid hue from anthocyanins -- blue, purple and red pigments that offer nutritional value. Anthocyanins work in combination with other nutrients to offer antioxidant protection for your tissues, and a diet rich in anthocyanins is associated with better vision, a lower risk of neurodegenerative diseases and better cardiovascular health. They might also fight cancer -- anthocyanins help control cell growth to prevent uncontrolled cell proliferation, and they prevent angiogenesis, a process that would otherwise increase blood supply to growing tumors.
Vitamin C
Cranberry juice and some types of Concord grape juice both offer ample amounts of vitamin C. Bottled grape juice naturally contains just trace amounts of vitamin C -- less than 1 percent of your daily needs -- so some food manufacturers add vitamin C to increase its nutritional value. A 1-cup portion of grape juice with added vitamin C contains 63.2 milligrams -- 70 and 84 percent of the daily vitamin C intakes recommended for men and women, respectively. Cranberry juice naturally contains vitamin C -- each cup offers 23.5 milligrams. A powerful antioxidant, vitamin C acts as a safeguard to prevent cellular damage caused by toxic free radicals. It's also important for enzyme function, including enzymes that help form bile salts and allow you to make collagen, a key component of connective tissue.
Other Benefits of Cranberry Juice
While both juices have a place in a healthful diet, cranberry juice has some health benefits not associated with grape juice. It's a good source of vitamin E, offering slightly more than one-fifth of your daily vitamin E needs, and it's packed with vitamin K -- each cup contains 10 percent for the K needs for men and 14 percent for women. Vitamin K helps you form blood clots and maintain healthy bone tissue, while vitamin E's antioxidant function combats cell damage.
