If you start eating cranberries at any point (teenaged or middle-aged, young or old) you can extend the length of your life significantly, a new study to be published in the February 2014 issue of Experimental Gerontology says.
The study was conducted on groups of 100 to 200 Drosophila, a type of fruit fly often used for experimentation. Scientists fed the flies sugar supplemented by two percent cranberry extract during three biological stages of their buggy lives that correspond in humans with young adulthood, middle and old age, the Wall Street Journal reports.
What it found: “Young adult” flies fed cranberry extract lived 25 percent longer than the control flies only fed sugar, while the middle and old aged flies extended their lifespan by 30 percent. Boom. Eating cranberries reduces accumulated oxidative damage, therefore cranberries make you live forever! Well, longer, at least.
The catch: This hasn’t been tested on humans yet, though, historically, cranberries have health benefits given their antioxidant properties. Another thing researchers found—lifespan extension induced by cranberries partially requires SOD2, an enzyme that encodes mitochondrial proteins.