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Drinking Pomegranate Juice Can Protect Your Brain, Heart, and Joints as You Age

The natural anti-inflammatory you need to know about.

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Thanks to many popular diet trends, fruit and vegetable juicing is now all the rage if you’re looking for a powerful hit of health-boosting micronutrients — that is tasty, too. In particular, pomegranate juice seems to have a bounty of benefits for your body.

You’re probably familiar with the pomegranate fruit with its tiny edible seeds that have a tart taste when you bite into them. Pomegranate juice is made from these tiny seeds, and once you hear about how it can benefit your heart, brain, gut, and so much more, you might want to consider adding it to your diet.

Pomegranates get their bright red color from antioxidant plant compounds called polyphenols. In fact, it’s been shown that pomegranate juice actually contains as much as three times more antioxidants than green tea and red wine!

Pomegranate Juice Benefits for Your Whole Body

The health-boosting properties of pomegranate juice are due to its high antioxidant and vitamin C content, as it boasts about 40 percent of your daily value in one fruit. Thanks to those antioxidants, the tasty beverage works hard to dial down inflammation.

Chronic inflammation is a condition which has been linked to several other diseases like heart disease, obesity, Alzheimer’s, and type 2 diabetes. Studies have shown that punicalagins, a powerful antioxidant in pomegranates, may reduce inflammation in the digestive tract. This makes it a good nutritional option for people with conditions like inflammatory bowel disease, Crohn’s disease, and ulcerative colitis. Additional research has found that the compounds in pomegranates also significantly lowered inflammatory markers in patients with diabetes.

One study showed that drinking pomegranate juice significantly reduced LDL “bad” cholesterol in those with type 2 diabetes. Further research has demonstrated that drinking pomegranate juice could protect LDL cholesterol from being oxidized in the blood, which is a key marker of the onset of heart disease. And lastly, pomegranate juice has also demonstrated an ability to help lower blood pressure.

Since pomegranate juice tames inflammation, there’s no surprise that it’s also been found to help with issues like joint pain and arthritis. Lab studies have shown that pomegranate extract blocked enzymes which damage joints in people with osteoarthritis. Results from animal studies also suggest that the extract relieved arthritis in the knee and even helped attenuate bone loss in subjects with arthritis and osteoporosis.

As there are several inflammatory markers involved in memory loss and the onset of Alzheimers, pomegranate juice has also been studied as a potential remedy. One study of 28 older adults who complained about their memory found that drinking eight ounces of pomegranate juice per day significantly improved markers of visual and verbal memory. That’s pretty impressive! Other animal studies have also concluded that pomegranate could help protect the brain against Alzheimer’s.

Given all of these pomegranate juice benefits, we can’t say we blame you if you’re ready to start chugging it down by the glass, but do so with caution. You can find it at your local health food store or supermarket, but be sure to look for versions that don’t contain added sugar. Even pure pomegranate juice can be pretty high in sugar, and without the fiber of the actual fruit, drinking too much can raise your blood sugar levels. So be sure to consume in moderation and know that by doing so, you’re doing great things for your health and body.

Here’s to a long, healthy, life!

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