Pomegranates lower LDL cholesterol and reduce risk of heart disease

• Because she ate a few pomegranate seeds before being rescued, she had to spend several months every year in the underworld with him.
• Modern stories about pomegranates are not quite as fanciful as the myth, but there is a lot of buzz lately about the exotic fruit.
• Pomegranates grow wild from Iran to northern India, but they are cultivated throughout India, the Middle East, southern Europe and California.
• Scientists in Israel have been conducting research on the health benefits of pomegranates and pomegranate juice for years, and now others have joined in.
• Researchers report that they are rich in antioxidants that can keep bad LDL cholesterol from oxidizing (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, May 2000).
• More recent research has found that 8 ounces of pomegranate juice daily for three months improved the amount of oxygen getting to the heart muscle of patients with coronary heart disease (American Journal of the College of Cardiology, September 2005).
• Other researchers report that long-term consumption of pomegranate juice may help combat erectile dysfunction (Journal of Urology, July 2005).
• Investigators are also excited about the possibility that pomegranate compounds might prevent prostate cancer or slow its growth.
• In mice, treatment with pomegranate extract delayed the development of tumors and improved survival (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Sept. 26, 2005).
• Scientists at Case Western Reserve University have reported that tissue cultures of human cartilage cells respond to pomegranate extract.
• We have seen no research supporting this claim, but we have heard from a reader with personal experience: "One of the best things to take for diarrhea is pomegranate juice, which can be found in grocery stores.
• Persephone might have done better to resist eating pomegranate seeds, but modern science suggests that most of us could benefit.