Pomegranate power!
Affectionately known as the ?jewel of winter’, the pomegranate is receiving growing acclamation for its disease-fighting abilities, largely due to its staggering antioxidant potency. Traditional medicines of the Middle East and India have used the pomegranate for centuries – leaves, skin and rind included – to cure everything from conjunctivitis and sore throats to baldness and hemorrhoids.This mystical fruit, a symbol of birth, death and eternal life owing to its brimming seeds and blood-like juice, is steeped in mythology. The prophet Mohammed encouraged his followers to eat the fruit to purge their systems of envy and hatred. In the tales of Ancient Greece, Persephone, daughter of Demeter the goddess of agriculture, was offered this fruit by Hades, god of the underworld. In succumbing to the temptation she condemned herself to spend time each year with Hades in the under Scholarships for High School Seniors world. To modern day Greeks the pomegranate is often a feature at weddings to symbolize fertility, and in China, a sugared version of the pomegranate seed is eaten on the wedding day to bless newlyweds.The juicy, tangy flesh of the fruit’s ruby seeds is delicious and every bit worth the patience required to extract them from their pith. Today you can readily buy pomegranate juice such as pomwonderful or pomegreat from general and health food stores. The soaring sales of pomegranate juice in the UK reflects the growing popularity of this fruit, with RJA Foods reporting a sale increase of their Pomegreat brand from 50,000 to 500,000 litres per month in 2005.Pro-HeartPomegranates are a superfood hugely beneficial to the heart, and by neutralising damaging free-radicals prevent the oxidation of ?bad’ LDL cholesterol that is associated with plaque build up in blood vessel walls.