Pomegranates
The juice of the pomegranate, obtained by crushing the jelly clinging to the pomegranate seeds, has moderate amounts of vitamin C and is high in potassium.
One fresh pomegranate has one gram dietary fiber, 9.4 mg vitamin C (13 percent of the RDA for a woman, 10 percent of the RDA for a man), and 399 mg potassium, 80 percent of the potassium in an eight-ounce cup of fresh orange juice.
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Fresh cut or juiced.
Look for: A pomegranate that feels heavy for its size (which means it’s juicy). The rind should be bright red.
Avoid: Pale pomegranates or pomegranates that look dry or wrinkled.
Store pomegranates in the refrigerator and use within a week.
Slice through the stem end of the pomegranate and pull off the top—carefully, to avoid splashing red pomegranate juice all over yourself. Then slice the pomegranate into wedges and pull the wedges apart. Once you cut the pomegranate apart you can handle it in one of two ways, the messy way and the neat way. The messy way is to pull the seeds out of the pomegranate, crush them in your teeth to get the juice, and then spit out the crushed seeds. The neat way is to put the seeds through a strainer, collect the juice, and discard the seeds.
Freezing. You can freeze a whole pomegranate or just its seeds. To eat, just thaw.
Lower risk of stroke. Various nutrition studies have attested to the power of adequate potassium to keep blood pressure within safe levels. For example, in the 1990s, data from the long-running Harvard School of Public Health/Health Professionals Follow-Up Study of male doctors showed that a diet rich in high-potassium foods such as bananas, oranges, and plantain may reduce the risk of stroke. In the study, the men who ate the higher number of potassium-rich foods (an average of nine servings a day) had a risk of stroke 38 percent lower than that of men who consumed fewer than four servings a day. In 2008, a similar survey at the Queen’s Medical Center (Honolulu) showed a similar protective effect among men and women using diuretic drugs (medicines that increase urination and thus the loss of potassium).
Lower levels of cholesterol. Pomegranate liquid is rich in polyphenols, antioxidant compounds that help lower “bad” cholesterol. Nutrition researchers at the Technion Faculty of Medicine and Rambam Medical Center in Haifa (Israel) rate pomegranate juice higher in polyphenols than red wine, blueberry juice, cranberry juice, green tea, black tea, and orange juice.
Potassium replacement. Because potassium is excreted in urine, potassium-rich foods are often recommended for people who are taking diuretic drugs.
