Pomegranates – more than just a beautiful fruit.

As foodies and food geeks around the world knows, pomegranates have become the darling of the food world. Tasty and good for you – who would have thought! Once something infiltrates the Starbucks line-up of beverages, you know that it has become a huge player in the food industry! I was quite surprised to learn that there have been 215 new pomegranate food and beverage products launched in the past seven months in the United States alone! Examples include a Chicken pomegranate sausage (who would have thought?) and Pomegranate truffles. Those R&D labs must have been working around to clock to be able to shoot out so many items in such a short time span.

In this article, it states many reasons as to why this gorgeous seeded fruit should become a staple of your diet. (Although this article is written from a US perspective, it is pretty applicable to the Canadian consumer as well.) And yet another thing to surprise me about pomegranates is that drinking the juice is healthier than eating the fruit itself! This is due to the peel containing a large quantity of antioxidants. Hence when the juice is squeezed, the antioxidants go along with it. As well as being packed with antioxidants, studies have shown that the pomegranate can slow the progression of prostate cancer and of all things, be a natural dose of Viagra.

So bring on the pomegranate, a food that will be a part of my diet through sickness and in health!