Pomegranates beat apples for antioxidant boost

The juice of pomegranate is more effective than apple in boosting the body's antioxidant defenses, which decline naturally with age, reports a new study.

The antioxidant capacity of the blood of 26 elderly subjects increased by almost 10 per cent after drinking pomegranate juice, according to a study published in this month's issue of Nutrition Research.

The subjects (average age 63.5) were randomly divided into two groups and assigned to drink 250 ml daily of either apple or pomegranate juice for four weeks.

At the end of the study Guo and co-workers report that the plasma antioxidant capacity of the subjects consuming pomegranate juice had increased from 1.33 to 1.46 millimoles per litre (mmol/l), using the FRAP assay of antioxidant quantification.

Furthermore, urine levels of 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine (8-OH-dG), the product of hydroxyl radical attack - reportedly a marker of damaged DNA - was reduced by about 21 per cent in the pomegranate group.

Bonnie - for all those buying into the goji, acai, and mangosteen hype, pomegranate is the true superjuice. The best thing about it is that unlike almost every other juice, pomegranate does not adversely affect blood sugar.