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Cranberry Benefits: Cranberries May Prolong Your Life, Study Finds

Why You Should Be Eating More Cranberries
Martin Barraud via Getty Images

A new study finds that cranberries have antioxidant properties that may prolong your life.

In new research to be published in the February 2014 issue of Experimental Gerontology, scientists have found that eating cranberries can extend your life significantly. The caveat: the study was conducted on fruit flies, not humans. A team from National Institute on Aging in Baltimore fed the flies sugar supplemented by two percent cranberry extract during three biological stages of their lives, which correspond in humans with young adulthood, middle age, and old age, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Findings showed that younger flies fed cranberry extract lived 25 percent longer than the flies in the control group, who were fed only sugar. Flies who consumed cranberry extract in middle and old age boosted their lifespan by 30 percent.

Deeper analysis found that eating cranberries, which are rich in phytochemicals, reduced cellular damage caused by environmental stress.

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