Pomegranates for Arthritis? And Heart Disease? And Cancer?

Pomegranates for Arthritis? And Heart Disease? And Cancer?

We all know we should eat our fruit and veg and get a good 5-7 portions a day as often as we can, but sometimes it's interesting to look at some specific fruits and see what different nutrients and benefits they offer us.

Let's take pomegranates for example. Pomegranates have a number of benefits that I, for one, didn't know about.

Firstly, let's talk about the nutrients. One cup of pomegranate seeds is said to contain 7 grams of fibre, 3 grams of protein, Vitamin C (30% of the RDI), Vitamin K (36% of the RDI), Folate (16% of the RDI) and finally, Potassium (12% of the RDI).

Amazing! However it doesn't stop there... Pomegranates have countless benefits that are currently being researched:

  • Pomegranate juice has been found to have three times more antioxidant activity than green tea.
  • Furthermore, one of the reasons pomegranates have been seen to be useful against multiple diseases is because of their anti-inflammatory properties. Chronic inflammation is a key contributing factor for many serious diseases such as heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer's disease and even obesity. It further helps with heart issues as regular intake of pomegranate juice has been shown to lower blood pressure levels.
  • More preliminary research has suggested potential benefits of pomegranate juice where future research is still needed. These include helping with prostate and breast cancer by potentially inhibiting cancer growth; benefits for arthritis; improving memory in older adults, potentially even protecting against Alzheimer's disease; and finally, given pomegranates are rich in nitrates, they may increase blood flow and thus improve exercise performance.

All in all, the exploration of the countless benefits appears to be an exciting field with lots of potential new uses for pomegranates. Either way it definitely sounds like something we want to be including in our diet, that's for sure.

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