Pomegranates prove to be beneficial in preventing breast cancer cells from metastasizing in laboratory study.

Have you been on Facebook lately (are you even on Facebook?  If not, get on there, and add me as a “friend”)?  If so, you’ve probably noticed a lot of people writing colors into their status updates.  “Red,” “white,” “blue.”

This isn’t your friends proclaiming their affinity for patriotic colors, but rather announcing to their fellow Facebookers what color of bra their wearing.

Really.

It’s done in an effort to spread the word about breast cancer awareness, which millions of people commemorate every October with walks, jogs and fundraisers.

But if your friends on Facebook were really “aware,” they’d be updating their status with the word “pomegranate.”  Because a new study published in Cancer Prevention Research says that pomegranate juice can stop the growth of breast cancer tumors dead in their tracks.

As with other fruits and vegetables high in antioxidants, pomegranates’ high antioxidant content is the curative quality for breast cancer prevention.  They discovered this after interacting 10 different types of compounds found in ellagitannins with cancer cells in laboratory tests.  All of the compounds contributed to the inhibition of the cancer cells’ growth, but one in particular—urolithin B—was especially effective.  Urolithin is a metabolite that derives from ellagitannins.

Ellagitannins are found in abundance in a number of fruits and vegetables like cranberries and strawberries.  They’re also found in the nut family—particularly walnuts and pecans.  But the best source for ellagitannins (which is the same thing as ellagic acid, or what ellagitannins are converted to in the body) is raspberries.  One cup of raspberries has about 40 milligrams of ellagitannins.

The study was conducted by researchers from the City of Hope Research Hospital in the facility’s Division of Tumor Cell Biology.

More studies on ellagitannins’ ability to stall or block the growth of breast cancer cells are in the offing.  Perhaps future studies will involve raspberries.  Considering they’re the richest source of ellagitannins, one would think they’d be just as—if not more—effective than pomegranates.

In the meantime, be very wary of ellagitannin supplements.  There are loads of them on the market, all of them trying to upstage their competitors.  I need to perform my own review on what elligitannins supplements (if any) are best.  So stay tuned for that.

Until then, stick with all-natural food sources for high quality ellagitannin content.

Sources:
ellagic.net
webmd.com
webmd.com
vitapurity.com

Pomegranates may reduce obesity and diabetes risk.

For me, the month of August is one of the more sad times of the year.  It’s a month of endings:  The summer’s last hurrah, the end of balmy weather, and final reminiscences at the family get-together.

On the other hand, August can be a happy time of year.  It signals new beginnings:  Teams returning to the gridiron, students returning to school (granted, some students happier than others), and farmers returning to fields, hoping to reap a successful harvest from their prized possessions.

The yummy pomegranate is one such prized possession, as August signals harvest time for pome-growers across the country (though pomegranates grow throughout the country, 3/4ths of the pomegranates sold in America grow in California).

Pomegranates are prized for their seeds.  A rare breed indeed is the pomegranate, for its one of the few fruits heralded almost exclusively for its seeds.  In fact, the literal translation of the word “pomegranate” is “apple with many seeds” or “seeded apple.”

Nutritionally, the pomegranate’s hailed for its antioxidant prowess.  In a past article I wrote about the pomegranate, I cited a UCLA study that showed how pomegranate juice is the most antioxidant-filled juice on the planet.  It’s also a rich source for vitamin C.

A more recent study gives even more gravitas to the great ‘granate, for it may reduce weight gain and the prevalence of diabetes.

Researchers from the University of Houston discovered this after providing 60 rats with varying amounts of fat.  Twenty of the rats were fed high doses of fat, another 20 were fed the same amount of fat and supplemented with pomegranate seed oil, and the final 20 were fed a typical rat diet (whatever that is).

The end of the study revealed some surprising findings.  Because not only did the group of rats fed the pomegranate oil gain less weight (10 grams less) despite eating the same amount of fat as the first group, but they also had a greater sensitivity to insulin.  Insulin is what allows the body to convert the things we eat into glucose for energy expenditure.  When the body resists insulin (people who are insulin resistant are typically those with type II diabetes), it results in a greater storage of fat.  This is part of the reason why obesity and diabetes are so closely linked.

The study is published in the British Journal of Nutrition.

Now, I grant you, this study was performed on rats, so it can’t be applied to humans at this point.  Further, 10 grams is not a whole heck of a lot when there are 453 grams in a pound.

I make these points only because the cynics are bound to make them, not to downplay the study’s findings.  After all, even if the rats fed the pomegranate seed oil had lost 30 or 40 grams, you can bet the cynics would find something to criticize the findings.  After all, with the cynics, their gripe is with natural health in general; they’ll search for anything to downplay what they see as “non-sense science.”

But they can’t escape the fact that pomegranates improved weight levels and insulin resistance.  As small as it may have been, it happened.  And just as the month of August signals the beginning of the pomegranate season, this study signals the beginning of future discoveries tying pomegranates to disease prevention (it’s already been tied to cancer prevention, not to mention Alzheimer’s disease and heart disease).

Sources:
nutraingredients.com
diabetes.org
pomegranates.org

Here’s the truth:  I love to eat, and the longer it takes for me to eat something, the better.  And as anyone who has spent time plucking out the dozens of juicy seeds from the pomegranate’s delectable interior will tell you, a pomegranate takes time to eat.  In short, its an endeavor.

But the pomegranate is more than just a fun fruit that takes a bit to eat—it’s a potential life saver.  That may sound like an overstatement, but it’s true.  According to several studies, the arils (i.e. the seeds) from pomegranates are an effective deterrent to prostate cancer, one of the most commonly diagnosed cancers in America today.

The healing powers of fruits, like pomegranates, reside in antioxidants.  As you may know, antioxidants help prevent the spread of free radicals in the body.  Though the formation of free radicals in the body is a natural process—many free radicals are necessary to live and breathe—the overabundance of free radicals in the body can lead to premature aging and may be involved in the development of heart disease, various cancers, Parkinson’s disease and a number of other health-related issues.  Antioxidants stem free radicals from unleashing their (often) destructive side effects.

The most recent evidence comes from a study conducted by a team of researchers from UCLA and published in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry.  Using rats with prostate cancer as their specimens, the researchers found that the antioxidants in pomegranates accumulated in their prostates.  These antioxidants are called ellagitannins.  After observing two groups of rats—one with prostate cancer and ellagitannins in their prostates, the other group grafted with prostate cancer cells and without ellagitannins in their prostates—they found that the rats that consumed pomegranates exhibited a slow tumor growth rate in comparison to those rats that did not consume pomegranates.  This finding only substantiated what had already been determined by a number of studies—that pomegranates are an effective prevention to cancer cell growth.

But as promising a sign as this and many other studies are in treating cancer, researchers say it’s too early to presume pomegranates will be used as an actual medical treatment for cancer.  But if the body of evidence is any indication of what lies ahead, pomegranates may be the missing ingredient.

In the meantime, the key is to try and implement what’s likely been a missing ingredient into your diet.  One simple, easy and quick way is by using the juicer.  Have you tried pomegranate juice?  It’s a delicious alternative to some of the more traditional fruit juices you see in the store, many of which are loaded with added sugar.  Studies indicate that pomegranate juice helps slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease, treats urinary tract infections and shields the nervous system from degeneration.

There are also lots of recipes that are using pomegranates as the main ingredient.  Any “pomegranate recipes” search online will yield a wealth of pomegranate recipes for main dishes, salads, and soups. 

The time has come to branch out and find out why pomegranates are a fantastically fun fruit for your taste buds as well as your well-being.