Pomegranates. They’re the latest of those wonder foods high in antioxidants — anti-rusting agents that hinder diseases like cancer and heart disease and slow down the aging process. Brightly colored fruits and vegetables such as blueberries, cherries and spinach have long been touted for their antioxidant properties. The exotic pomegranate is the new healthy darling — its juice has three times the antioxidant activity of red wine or green tea, two other popular elixirs.
Pomegranates are native from Iran to the Himalayas, but they’ve been cultivated over the entire Mediterranean region since ancient times and they’re now also grown in California and the southwestern US. The name means “many-grained apple,” and, since they are at their peak in late fall and early winter, pomegranates are also affectionately known as the “jewel of winter.”
That jewel label is even more apropos when you cut open a pomegranate — inside the tough, leathery skin is a bitter white membrane that envelops hundreds of sparkling ruby-like arils, or juice sacs, containing the fruit’s seeds. This is the edible part. Extract the arils and seeds by cutting the pomegranate into sections, placing the sections in a bowl of water, and using your fingers to nudge out the arils. Throw away the membrane and skin, strain the water out and eat the arils, seed and all. Or, if you prefer not to crunch the seeds, toss a bunch of the bright crimson arils into your mouth, scrape the tangy-sweet flesh off with your teeth, and spit out the rest. Not quite as genteel a way of getting those antioxidants into your system as sipping red wine or green tea.
If you want fresh pomegranate juice, roll the fruit over a countertop to loosen the juice, make a small hole in the skin, and squeeze it over a bowl. Or cut the pomegranate in half and juice it as you would an orange or grapefruit. Two pomegranates will yield about a cup of juice, which you can drink straight, mixed with other complementary fruit juices like apple or cherry, or as the basis for trendy pomegranate martinis or margaritas.
An easier alternative is bottled pomegranate juice. It’s now widely available in supermarkets and health food stores, but it’s pretty pricey — a 15.2oz. bottle is about $4. But the health benefits may be worth it. Pom Wonderful advertises its pomegranate juice by saying, “It’s been around for 5,000 years. Drink it and you might be too.”
This article appears in Nov 10-16, 2004.
