Since I'm prone to bladder issues I believe that consuming cranberries is beneficial to me. Yet at the same time I know to be wary of other ingredients (and sugar content!) when it comes to juice and would rather not take my cranberries whole or in a pill. I do my best to avoid HFCS, would rather not have the added sugar, can't have aspartame used in "diet" low sugar versions, and can't have apple juice (which I'll explain in a minute). I have picked up pure cranberry juice in the past, but it's extremely tart, very expensive, and can be difficult to find.
After carefully checking labels a while back, I started buying "Ocean Spray no sugar added 100% juice Cranberry." Although it's technically still a lot of sugar, I specifically liked how it was sweetened with grape juice instead of sugar, HFCS, or aspartame. Although I used to drink it avidly, I eventually cut down due to concerns about the amount of sugar I was ingesting. I've mostly used it for my morning smoothies for several months now, having maybe 4 oz. a day. I'd still occasionally drink it by itself as well, sometimes watering it down to make it go further without so many calories.
But when I had some by itself the other day, I noticed it tasted strange and couldn't put my finger on why until I looked over the label. It now contains apple juice in addition to the grape and cranberry. Eesh, when did this happen?
Oddly enough, I can eat apples just fine, but learned to avoid apple juice a while back as it tends to irritate the skin around my lips and messes with my digestive tract. I've been under the weather for about a month now, and am wondering how long I've been drinking apple juice without realizing it. I wonder if it explains the sores I've been getting elsewhere and if it's at least part of the reason behind how crappy I've been feeling lately.
So it looks like I'll be scouring labels until I find something that will work for me, although if my memory serves me correctly I imagine I'll be stuck back with pure cranberry juice. Maybe it won't be so tart if I stick solely with mixing it into my smoothies?
In the meantime I'll be paying attention to see if my body reacts to taking the apple juice back out of my diet. Has anyone else had similar issues?