“TUESDAY, March 22 (HealthDay News) — A large glass of pomegranate juice a day may help keep the heart doctor away.
Italian and American scientists report that pomegranate juice helped keep fatty deposits from collecting on artery walls in mice, and kept human heart cells healthier.
“Mice that drank pomegranate juice were able to significantly reduce the progression of atherosclerosis, [by] at least 30 percent,” said study co-author Dr. Claudio Napoli, a professor of medicine and clinical pathology at the University of Naples School of Medicine in Italy.
The findings appear in this week’s issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (news – web sites).
Pomegranates, a native Middle Eastern fruit, are finding their way into more and more homes in the United States. The fruit contains crunchy seeds surrounded by juicy pulp and is a good source of potassium, vitamin C and antioxidants, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (news – web sites) (USDA).
“Pomegranates are fun to eat, but messy,” noted Samantha Heller, a senior clinical nutritionist at New York University Medical Center. For that reason, she said, “juice may be a better option.”
The old rimonim trick. When I was in elementary school we used to have pomegranate wars. There were two groups of us who would walk back and forth between home and school. Along the way we would sometimes ambush each other with pomegranates, oranges, dirt clods, whatever we could get our hands on. Every now and then you would get nailed in the head and if the fruit was soft not only did you get a headache but you’d end up a real mess.
And let me say that more than one mother yelled at us about this.
Leave a Reply