Pomegranate and Your Health
The pomegranate is similar in size of a large orange and can vary in color from yellow to deep dark red, and and having a juicy pulp. Pomegranates keep well in the refrigerator for two months or even longer.
Pomegranates have been used in the Middle east and Mediterranean countries for centuries, but they have only recently found a place in American and now they’re found everywhere: in juice, cocktails and chewing gum as well as in prepared dishes.
Most people find pomegranate juice very flavorful. Try the juice concentrate and mix with sparkling water or club soda. This brilliant ruby red drink, has a surprisingly sophisticated semi-sweet slightly tangy taste that is perfect replacement for soft drinks loaded with sugar.
Pomegranates are being publicized for their abundance of vitamins, heart-healthy polyphenols and high levels of flavonoids, antioxidants that also seem to protect against heart disease and cancer.
A number of studies have shown that consuming pomegranate extract can be better for you than Cranberry or orange juice even green tea or red wine.
What health benefits does pomegranate juice have?
According to the American Association of Naturopathic Physicians (AANP), the natural fruit juice has many impressive health benefits, each backed with studies to support the claims. This unusual fruit is indigenous to Asia and it has made its way to the western hemisphere over the years. I Recently Came Across This Interesting Information and thought you would be interested in reading it.
There has been some interesting research on the effects of pomegranate juice on prostate cancer at the Medical School at the University of Wisconsin in Madison which indicate that pomegranate juice “shows major promise to combat prostrate cancer, the most common invasive cancer and second leading cause of cancer death in American men.” The study was studied to evaluate whether the extract from pomegranates would not only kill existing cancer, but help prevent cancer from starting or progressing. Using human prostate cancer cells, the researchers evaluated the fruit extract’s effect, at different doses, on cultured laboratory cells. This finding showed that the higher the amount of pomegranate extract the cells received, the more cells died. The researchers also evaluated the effect of pomegranate extract on mice that had been injected with prostrate cancer cells from humans and developed malignancies. Mice receiving the highest concentrations of pomegranate extract showed significant slowing of their cancer progression and a decrease in the levels of prostrate-specific antigen, a marker used to indicate the presence of prostate cancer in humans. This study was published in the September 28, 2005 online issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, which is accessible at: www.pnas.org.
Pomegranates May Help Prevent Heart Disease
Research published in the September 2005 issue of The American Journal of Cardiology (Volume 96:810-844) examined the effect of pomegranate juice on patients with ischemic coronary heart disease. Research performed by scientists at the University of California School of Medicine, The Preventive Medicine Research Institute and the California Pacific Medical Center suggests daily consumption of pomegranate juice for three months may improve stress-induced myocardial ischemia in patients with ischemic coronary heart disease. During the study, 45 participants, all of whom had ischemic coronary heart disease and myocardial ischemia, were divided into two groups. One group received 250ml about (8.5 oz) pomegranate juice each day for three months, and the other received the same amount of a placebo drink with a similar caloric content, flavor and color. The results showed that blood flow to the heart improved by about 17 percent in the pomegranate group and declined by 18 percent in the placebo group.
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