Pomegranate seeds are maddeningly hard to extricate but well worth the trouble. The juicy magenta fruit has been praised from the time of King Tut for its role in immortality (OK, so it didn’t work so well for him) and as an aphrodisiac.
Although no promises can be made toward the latter claim either, recent scientific studies have found that pomegranate juice does help prevent fatty deposits from forming on artery walls, notes a story in the November issue of Cooking Light.
Another study, from the University of California at Los Angeles, says the fruit may help prevent prostate cancer.
Pomegranate juice is heavy with polyphenols, cancer-fighting antioxidants, and is a great source of calcium, potassium and vitamin C. The fruit also is being studied as a means for reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease, lowering blood pressure and LDL (bad) cholesterol and possibly in preventing dementia and cancer.
Pomegranates are available only between September and January. However, you can get the juice year round at most grocery stores (and you won’t have to turn your fingers red while struggling to get the seeds out, but the juice is pricey).
Fish-safety scale
Fish is touted as an important part of a healthy diet, yet the government also warns against consuming fish that contain high levels of mercury. So what gives? A Web site of the Center for Food, Nutrition and Agriculture Policy at the University of Maryland has stepped forward to explain in scientific detail what the public needs to know.
In short, it reports that fish is still an important part of a healthy diet because its omega-3 fatty acids help with optimal brain function as well as eye and skin health. It’s also protective against certain cancers. Though eating large amounts of fish containing high levels of mercury can be toxic, there have been just four cases of such poisonings reported worldwide.
The groups that need to be most careful which fish they choose are pregnant women, women who could become pregnant, nursing moms and young children. They should heed the following advice of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency:
Eat no shark, swordfish, king mackerel or tilefish, all of which have high levels of mercury.
It’s OK to eat as much as 12 ounces (two average meals) per week of a variety of other fish and shellfish that are lower in mercury, such as shrimp, canned light tuna, salmon, pollock and catfish.
Albacore (white) tuna has more mercury than canned light tuna, but it’s OK to eat as much as 6 ounces a week if you eat no other fish that week.
When eating other types of fish from local waters, it’s usually safe to eat as much as 6 ounces (one meal) a week.
Add nuts for health
Women who ate at least 5 ounces of nuts weekly were 35 percent less likely to be diagnosed with coronary heart disease than those who ate less than an ounce of nuts a month, according to Harvard University’s Nurses’ Health Study.
And men who ate nuts at least twice weekly had half the rate of sudden cardiac death compared with men who rarely ate nuts, showed a Physician’s Health Study.
But how many nuts is that?
A special feature in the November Nutrition Action Healthletter translated the number of nuts in 1 ounce as follows:
Almonds–20 to 24.
Brazil nuts–6 to 8.
Cashews–16 to 18.
Hazelnuts–18 to 20.
Macadamias–10 to 12.
Pecans–18 to 20.
Pine nuts–150-157.
Pistachios–45 to 47.
Walnuts–8 to 11.
