Lady holding a glass with little violet liquid

How Effective is Cranberry Juice to Detox

If you are reading this article, you are probably wondering how effective cranberry juice is, or whether it will even work to pass a urinalysis test, right? Or how much cranberry juice would be sufficient to detox effectively?

Well, you can sit back and relax because we can answer that for you!

Throughout this article, you will read about how cranberry juice can help you pass a pee test, and what elements allow cranberry juice to be an effective detox.

What is Cranberry Juice?

Cranberry juice is an overarching name for any juice that comes from the cranberry fruit. It is typically enriched with ingredients like sugar and vitamins to give it its flavorful taste. If you get 100% cranberry juice, it should include only the juice and the vitamins that it comprises naturally, which are the catalysts that help you pass your test. Those ingredients include niacin, aspirin, pectin, and zinc. While they’re all helpful, niacin can be the handiest, as it helps flush your system faster.

Will Cranberry Juice Help Pass a Urinalysis?

Cranberry juice with mint on old wooden table

Let’s start off by saying that cranberry juice can be used to pass that test, but not necessarily in a beneficial way. In fact, if you use this method, you are putting yourself at higher, unnecessary risk.

Yes, it is a natural way to detox your body before a urinalysis, but it depends on how much you smoke. For example, if you do it on a daily basis, it would take at least a month for your body to detox.

So if you have that kind of time to prepare, then this cranberry juice method is for you. If you don’t have a month to detox, there is no guarantee that it will work for you.

What Makes Cranberry Juice Effective?

young woman drinking glass of cranberry juice

Well, cranberry juice is a natural diuretic. Meaning, it causes an increased frequency of passing urine, which can help rid your body of toxins.

And the elements that are known as viable remedies to cheat a pee test, are listed below:

  • Niacin
  • Aspirin
  • Pectin
  • Zinc

How Does It Work?

women sitting impatiently on toilet

Okay, now you know what makes it compelling. But how do those components work for it to be effective?

As we stated, earlier cranberry juice is a diuretic, and the accelerated urination speeds up your bodies natural process of removing toxins. Even better the other minerals in the juice also aid waste removal.

Let’s get into further detail about how each element works to detox your body; starting off with niacin.

A High Dosage Of Niacin!

Structural model of Vitamin B3 (Niacine) on the blackboard.

What you need to know about niacin is that you would need a high dosage of it. Around 500 mg to 2000 mg every day to be exact! And you would need gallons of water to go along with it! It would take weeks of doing this before your screening.

Knowing that information, you are probably wondering how much cranberry juice to drink before the screening, right? Well, in a 100g bottle, there is about only 0.04g of niacin.

So in other words, you would need to drink A WHOLE LOT to get the 500g minimum!

Salicylic Acid

If you didn’t know, there is evidence that suggests taking an aspirin a couple of hours before a urinalysis can trick the test to give a false negative. Just like in the lab analyses in the Journal of Analytical Toxicology, which found negative results when taking aspirin before a test.

Although it can give you a false negative for a urinalysis, the method it would work on would be EMIT, short for Enzyme Multiplied Immunoassay Technique test. So if your screening happens to be a GC-MS test, you would fail.

But lucky for you, GC-MS tests are mainly used as a way to confirm if you tested positive in the EMIT test, and is also quite costly. So EMIT tests are most likely to be used since this procedure is less expensive.

So, the salicylic acid content in the cranberry juice may help. But it still unclear as to how much cranberry juice you would have to drink to equal the amount of salicylic acid needed. Also, it is not a guarantee that it will always give you a negative.

Packing Some Pectin!

A teaspoon of pectin

If you have not read our Certo Review yet, which explains what pectin is and how to use it, we’ll give you a quick rundown.

Pectin or fruit pectin is a natural polysaccharide found in fruits. It is similar to gelatin, having a gel consistency, except for the fact that pectin is a fiber and gelatin is a protein. And Certo and Sure-Jell, products of KRAFT Foods, use pectin.

Pectin binds itself to the toxins in your blood and excretes it through your stool instead of your urine. This then means you are temporarily “clean” of any unwanted toxins for your urinalysis.

Now for the cranberry juice to have this effect, it has to be done within 24 hours of your screening, but you would also have to drink a lot of it since the juice only contains a minimal amount of this fiber.

Zinc In Your Drink?

Zinc - Element of Mendeleev Periodic table magnified with magnifying glass

Zinc can beat the screening, and it has done so with tests involving the detection of:

  • THC
  • Methamphetamine
  • Cocaine

Zinc is found in the cranberry juice. But for the zinc to thwart your urinalysis, it would have to be added DIRECTLY into your urine. So the zinc in the drink will not work.

And if you are thinking about adding it into your sample, be wary that it might be a spot test. That allows them to detect the zinc in your pee sample, in case it was used to interfere with your screening.

Luckily, labs rarely use that method. But, there is a higher chance of getting caught if they use that test.

How Long Does it Take for Cranberry Juice to Clean your Urine?

The pectin in cranberry juice can help mask the toxins in your system, but only if you drink it within 24-hours of your screening. Your best bet is to drink a lot as soon as you know about the test and keep drinking it up until test day. If you drink it for a week straight, the other chemicals will probably have you flushed out, but you’ll need to continue the process to achieve that 24-hour masking period.

What Kind of Cranberry Juice for Detox?

For best results, drink 100% pure cranberry juice. Skip all the artificial flavorings and added sugars, as they won’t help you pass. The chemicals in pure cranberry juice can help mask THC (Tetrahydrocannabinol), as well as cocaine and methamphetamine, from your urine.

What is the Recommended Method for Taking Cranberry Juice?

The most efficient way to use cranberry juice is to drink it in its pure form. You can purchase it at any grocery store, and the purer, the better. Be careful how much you drink, though, as a diluted sample could be as good as a failed test for some organizations. Ultimately, you may be better off buying all these chemicals in capsule form and taking them with a great deal of water each day.

Resources

https://www.cranberryinstitute.org/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5906759/

https://academic.oup.com/jat/article/37/9/665/828646

About Chris Wilder

Chris Wilder spent many years working as a part-time phlebotomist, [and yes he knows all the vampire jokes] while honing his writing skills. In 2017 he gave up playing around with blood to become a full-time writer. While dealing with blood might seem a cold and analytical vocation, his role of phlebotomist required dealing with nervous patients who needed plenty of empathy and compassion, Chris has carried this over to his written work. He believes that Quick Fix Synthetic products are the best chance of success. With his wide knowledge in this field and his understanding of how urine drug tests can affect the lives of everyday people like you and me, Chris can explain in layman's turns all the important information you need to know. In his free time, he likes to hang out with friends and check out local bands drinking a glass or two of his favorite Makers Mark Bourbon, while enjoying a recreational smoke. To keep himself in shape he takes extremely short walks with Lola, his incredibly lazy pet pug.