by Elaina Marcotte

Created on: February 11, 2009   Last Updated: February 16, 2009

Pomegranates are beautiful, juicy, delicious, and stacked full of health benefits! In this busy high paced world, abounding with toxins and free radicals that attack our health, eating pomegranates is a fantastic way to fight back. Pollution, second hand smoke, pesticides, chemicals of all sorts are all around us in high numbers. Our bodies need antioxidants to combat the ill effects these things have on us. Pomegranates, as research now shows have the highest number of potent, naturally occurring polyphenol antioxidants. More in fact than green tea, orange, blueberry or cranberry juice, even red wine.

Many have known the benefits of pomegranates for quite some time, but for alot of us, this is a new food. But it can almost be thought of as a new medicine, a natural one with no side effects, only enriched health. The newest research is showing, that pomegranates keep bad LDL cholesterol from oxidizing, and can keep blood platelets from clumping together, therefore avoiding blood clots. Investegators think it is possible that pomegranate compounds may prevent prostate cancer or slow its growth. Pomegranates may also reduce the risk of breast cancer. It has also been found that long term consumption of this delicious fruit can help combat erectile dysfunction. It also has benefits for arthritis sufferers. Reports show that tissue cultures of human cartilage cells respond to pomegranate extract. Inflammation is reduced and the enzymes that break down cartilage become less active. It has also been shown that patients who suffered with coronary heart disease, when drinking a cup of pomegranate juice daily for three months, that the amount of oxygen getting to the heart muscle was greatly increased. Pomegranate juice can also be used to calm diarrhea. It is absolutely outstanding the number of health benefits that come from including this wonderful fruit in your diet.

You can have a pomegranate as a snack, eating the anils (seeds) on their own, or including them in lettuce or fruit salads. You can juice them, for an absolutely delicious smoothie, mock-tail, or just the juice on its own. Pomegranate can also be added to soups and rice dishes, or even desserts like ice cream or as a cake garnish with some whipped cream. Really the possibilities are endless, there is nothing you cannot do or try and the fun comes through this exploration.

So knowing these things indeed shows us that there is nothing to lose and all kinds of benefits to gain, eat pomegranates, include them in your regular diet, and reap the benefits of feeling fantastic.

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