The fruit of the pomegranate bush is very popular, and many people consume it for its health benefits. This fruit, native to Asia, has an outstanding content of active ingredients, as it contains various polyphenols, flavonoids, and other antioxidants quercetin, gallic acid, anthocyanins (such as resveratrol) and tannins. All of these have strong antioxidant effects.
You can read the term antioxidant in many places, many plants and fruits contain high levels of antioxidants, why is pomegranate unique? Pomegranates contain a wide variety of active ingredients with different antioxidant effects. To understand this, let's look at what antioxidants are.
Free radicals are molecules that damage cells through oxidation (a process called oxidative stress), and as their name suggests, antioxidants act against this process. The molecules that make up cells are made up of negatively electrons and positively charged protons. Free radicals take electrons away from the molecules that make up cells, damaging one of the building blocks of the cell and rendering the cell inoperable - think of it like taking away one element of a house of cards, it collapses, the same thing happens at cellular level when a molecule is damaged. And antioxidants are able to supply electrons to the damaged cells, allowing them to regain their structure and become functional again.
It's important to know that different antioxidants have different levels of electron supply, so it's not just the antioxidant machinery of a particular plant that matters, but it's important to have as many different antioxidant active ingredeints as possible.
This is why pomegranates are excellent, as they contain a wide variety of different active ingredients (as we have seen).
Studies have shown that pomegranate can have stronger antioxidant properties than black or green tea. In addition, it has been shown that polyphenols (which are also found in pomegranate extract) may have more powerful antioxidant effects than vitamin V and vitamin E.
Chronic low levels of inflammation can cause many diseases - when this happens inflammatory cells, which are incredibly important for fighting infections and healing wounds, are at work, in small but continuous amounts, damaging healthy cells by free radicals. So inflammation in natural amounts is essential for survival, without it we would not be able to fight off various infections. But if inflammation gets out of control, it will damage healthy cells.
This means that antioxidant-containing active ingredients will also have anti-inflammatory properties. Reducing inflammation is specifically important in preventing cardiovascular problems. After all, chronic inflammation - which is exacerbated by oebsity - underlies almost all cardiovascular problems.
For this reason, pomegranate extract can be particularly beneficial in the treatment or prevention of many cardiovascular diseases. Studies have shown that pomegranate consumption can help lower cholesterol and blood homocysteine levels - elevated levels of homocysteine indicate inflammation in the blood vessels, which in turn puts you at the risk of atherosclerosis.
In addition, studies have shown that the active ingredients in pomegranate may inhibit the process by which fatty acids are converted into free radicals and may also have blood sugar stablising effects.
In combination, pomegranate extract may also have antihypertensive effects.