Most of the studies done on cranberries have involved the juice (in cranberry juice cocktail) or powders, so it's hard to gauge what a medicinal dose of dried berries would be. According to the National Institutes of Health, which has been supporting research into antibacterial and other activities of cranberry products, "Doses of the cocktails used in studies have ranged from 160 to 750 ml a day, usually in divided doses at meals."

Interestingly, antioxidant activity of cranberries has been shown to vary according to the strain of fruit and how it's stored.

Daisyduckworth, my best guess is a 1/4 cup of fruit or 6 oz of juice daily would do a body good.

They're so puckeringly tart though that I've found it very hard to eat the fruit without a lot of sweetener - which defeats the purpose a bit. The unsweetened juice is slightly more tolerable (somewhat akin to drinking blood in my book, lol) and is relatively easy to find in local health food stores here.

Fruit stewed in honey w/apples is particularly palatable, also on mixed greens w/walnuts & a good vinagrette.

I prefer blueberries and bilberries which have similar properties and are much tastier.

~bushpoet

Hi Daisyduckworth:
We eat dried fruits of cranberries.They are less tarty and softer.I have consumed up to four teaspoonful of dried cranberry fruits per day in a doze of one spoonful of fruit four times a day.
They are helpful in preventing Urinary Tract Infections.

chiman

Here is the problem. Juice is made from the ripe berries, whereas the berries which are shipped to stores, like all commercial fruit, are picked before they are ripe. That is why they are so tart. Really ripe cranberries are not like that. I have eaten them as a child, and I did not use sweetener with them.