Pomegranate juice, dates could improve heart health
Ideally the stones in the dates should be ground up into a paste and eaten as well, but even without them, the combination is still better than either fruit alone, they said.
Pomegranates and dates contain antioxidants, which can reduce a process called atherosclerosis – where the arteries become hard and clogged up with fatty deposits known as plaques – by around a third.
If one of the plaques ruptures it can form a blood clot which can block the blood supply to the heart, triggering a heart attack. It can also block the blood supply to the brain, triggering a stroke.
The researchers concluded that people at high risk for heart problems, as well as healthy people, could benefit from drinking half a glass or pomegranate juice (125ml or 4oz) along with three dates a day for protection.
They also studied mice whose cholesterol levels were high.
They found that the triple combination of pomegranate juice, date fruits and date stones did indeed provide maximum protection against the development of atherosclerosis.
It reduced oxidative stress in the arterial wall – the process which causes it to harden – by 33 per cent.
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