"pomegranate juice" news and stories

Ah, the pomegranate choices at Pinkberry...Should I have pomegranate booster over plain frozen yogurt or pomegranate flavored yogurt?

About a month ago, Pinkberry launched their new holiday-inspired flavor: pomegranate. Unlike most flavored frozen yogurt, this one tastes like real yogurt mixed with fresh pieces of pomegranates. The bitterness usually associated with pomegranates is subtle and the sweetness not too overwhelming. After being "in-the-works" for 12 months, pomegranate was launched using 100 percent California pomegranate juice.

Stay healthy this holiday season by consuming Pinkberry's frozen pomegranate yogurt loaded with antioxidents. Pinkberry is also offering a pomegranate booster that's still in development. So, they're not advertising it yet at their stores, but you can ask for one as a topping. Actually, I enjoyed a shot of the pomegranate booster as a topping over their plain flavor more than the pomegranate flavor. I was blown away by the booster's unique syrupy consistency that reminded me of a watered-down balsamic reduction.

Have you tried Pinkberry's pomegranate flavor and/or booster? If so, what do you think? Which one do you like better?

POM Wonderful pomegranate juices were pulled off the shelves by Wild Oats Markets in seven stores in Maine, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Connecticut after an animal rights group, in an act of terrorism, claimed they tampered with 487 bottles. POM says the claim was a hoax and that "So far we are not aware of any consumers who have become ill as a result of these purported actions."

In response to questions about the situation Wild Oats spokeswoman Sonja Tuitele said that "as soon as we get test results that demonstrate that it has not been tampered with, we will reorder the product and have it back on our shelves. We want to make sure the product is safe before we continue selling it in stores that may have been targeted."

The claim was made in an anonymous letter posted on a website for the North American Animal Liberation Press Office and said that bottles "along the Eastern seaboard in stores like Wild Oats, D'Agostino and Food Emporiums" had been tampered with and that the "contaminated contents of the bottles would cause diarrhea, vomiting and headaches, but not death."

This isn't the first time that POM has become the target of animal rights terrorists, supposedly they are outraged because POM funds research on the medical benefits of pomegranate juice and part of that involves animals. To the terrorists all I have to say is Relax, you'll live longer. Expect POM to be back onto store shelves soon.

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Last night I was reading the latest issue of Vanity Fair (the one with Dreamgirls on the cover and a really stupid "women aren't funny" article by Christopher Hitchens inside), and I suddenly got a really strong scent of pomegranates. I had no idea where it was coming from until I flipped through the magazine and saw an ad for a pomegranate drink, and it had one of those "lift and smell" flaps that you usually see in cologne ads. Now they're doing it with food and drink. Interesting. Anyway, the smell was overwhelming (in a good way), even when I finished reading the mag and threw it out. I smelled it all last night when I was in bed.

Pomegranates are all the rage now. They're amazingly good for you, they taste good, and there are lots of things you can do with them. The Boston Globe explores the phenomenon.

Earlier this month, we heard about the findings of a study that showed blackberries as having the highest concentrations of antioxidants per one cup serving of any food. Granted, we don't necessarily think anyone would want to eat a cup of blackberries every single day for the rest of his or her life. You might be leaving out other important foods by doing so, and besides, eating the same thing every day is boring.

We already know that pomegranates are antioxidant powerhouses, with the ability to improve cardiovascular health, help arthritis, and fight those darned free radicals that are loitering around your body. However, a new study out of Israel suggests that pomegranate juice, though highly concentrated with sugar, could benefit diabetics.

The findings showed that pomegranate juice had no effect on blood sugar levels (i.e. did not increase it). However, it did reduce levels of other compounds that affect cardiovascular health. Consistently high glucose levels intensify the hardening of blood vessels. This is called atherosclerosis, and leads to cardiovascular disease and stroke. According to lead researcher Professor Michael Aviram, "In most juices, sugars are present in free – and harmful – forms. In pomegranate juice, however, the sugars are attached to unique antioxidants, which actually make these sugars protective against atherosclerosis."

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