Which is the Better Choice Between Pomegranate Extract vs Juice?
The fruit of the Punica granatum shrub has been known to yield a number of health benefits of pomegranate over the centuries. As we try to ensure that we all enjoy a balanced and healthy diet, it can be tricky to find the fruit and veg we need as part of our five-a-day. The benefits and effects of pomegranate are thought to help various issues, including prostate cancer, cancer cells, blood pressure and heart disease to name a few.
While it can be possible to find pomegranate extract in the form of edible pips in some shops, the juice could be the best option for you, as it’s much easier to find, when carrying out your weekly groceries shopping.
Read on to learn more about the key qualities behind some the best pomegranate juice brands out there on the market.
Why Buy Pomegranate Juice?
First and foremost, this juice daily is nothing short of incredible when it comes to the number of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants it has packed inside it.
The pomegranate fruit itself offers something of a surprise for first-timers, in that you don’t tend to eat it as you would with fruits such as apples or oranges. Instead, you tend to peel away the skin to get to the edible pips or you drink the juice that can be extracted from the pips.
These pips resemble the surface of a raspberry, with a fleshy red exterior and a small seed within. They can be extracted and crushed to produce the juice, and it certainly packs a punch.
A study published by the journal Nutrition Reviews in 2009 found that the juice from this fruit is rich in polyphenols and proclaimed it as being especially good for the heart. Just to explain, polyphenols are a form of micronutrients that come from plant-based foods. Polyphenols are also found in berries, cereals, tea and even coffee beans.
Clinical investigations into this juice remain limited, but during that study in 2009, it was demonstrably found to help reduce the size of heart lesions in mice with immunodeficiency issues, and even helped reduce vascular inflammation for cardiac patients.
Fresh Pomegranate Juice for Sale Everywhere
The pomegranate shrub is believed to have taken root in what is called the Fertile Crescent in the Middle East, before humans started domesticating it across Africa, Asia and Europe. Wherever humans went, the shrub came too.
Before long, it started spreading to the Americas, with some of the first pomegranate seeds brought to the New World, across the Atlantic by the Spanish in the 18th Century.
Thanks to the internet, it’s never been easier to purchase pomegranate juice online at the click of a button, but with great powers comes something of a pomegranate juice cost, as a growing number of health food and drink brands try to cash on in the pomegranate-mania, and not all of them are what they seem.
“Where can I find the best pomegranate juice to buy?”, you might ask. What’s the best way to find it, online or offline? You’ll be pleased to know that there’s a great amount of choice, with most stores able to stock some variety of the juice, but no two brands are the same.
POM is one of the larger-known pomegranate juice brands on the market, but there are also other juice brands such as Pomegreat and Biona, as well as more established juice brands which offer pomegranate-flavour varieties.
How Do I Buy Pure Pomegranate Juice?
It matters that you make the right choice, as any kind of fruit juice could potentially get diluted in some way – this could mean that some brands might mix your desired drink with additives, water or other juices, sourced from fruits such as cranberries, blueberries or even blood oranges. It has the effect of giving you a false impression about what to expect.
In 2010, Californian chemist Cynthia Larive took this issue so seriously, that she carried through a ground-breaking experiment to see just how many popular brands were offering the real deal, and which ones were watering their juices down behind the scenes.
It might sound like something out of CSI, but because fruit is an organic thing, the juices produced by any fruit possess what is called a molecular fingerprint, crammed full of all the unique compounds that go into the juice itself. Think of it like a DNA test for fruit juice.
To make the most of what pomegranate fruit juice has to offer, follow this rule: the purer, the better. If you’re curious about the purity of any pomegranate juice product, always read the label, to make sure it is in concentrated form. This should guarantee that you buy pure pomegranate juice, as you originally intended, and not some watered-down version.
Where Can I Buy Pomegranate Juice Online?
We’ve mentioned some of the leading brands you can find and the legitimate concern about purity of some brands over others, but you might be wondering what would be the best place to actually find the juice itself. If you live somewhere with a limited stock of fruits and juices, the next best alternative might be some online delivery service, whether that’s Amazon or a web-based health food chain, which can deliver straight to your door.
Some of the pomegranate juice Amazon provides for delivery is offered as an official liquid food supplement, but some brands offer it as a simple juice drink like any other. It’s up to you, whether you consider it as just any other juice, or whether you wish to treat it as something more medicinal.
Several popular drinks brands sell a fizzy version of the juice in a can, so you can just drink it like regular soda (but be careful of sugar of course!), while some lesser-known brands offer pomegranate-based products including powders that, when mixed with water, can make a tasty pomegranate smoothie – the choices are endless.
The key factors are the price and purity – for every pricey bottled juice, you’re likely to find a cheaper alternative. As with any health food or drink, higher quality might require paying a higher cost, but then again, some brands might simply be seeing how much they can charge, when there might be cheaper versions of the juice, which boast greater nutritional value.
For any other queries about all there is to know about the power of pomegranate juice, check out this guide to why you should consider making the change to pomegranate juice today.
The Difference Between Pomegranate Extract vs Juice
