POM Wonderful

Ilana Zablozki-Amir, MD

The food we eat can make or break our health. This is the emerging paradigm of 21-century medicine. Today’s most common health concerns, including heart disease, diabetes, cancer, arthritis, osteoporosis, chronic fatigue, autoimmune conditions and Alzheimer’s disease, are all strongly correlated to imbalanced nutrition. Whether a person’s health goals are to prevent the onset, progression or recurrence of any of these, food must be thought of as a primary tool.

The crisis that we face today is that much of the food we eat is nutrient-poor, that is, the foods we eat have more calories per nutrient, so more calories have to be consumed to get the nutrition the body needs to function properly. Many of the calories that make up the foods are empty and of no nutritional benefit. Often, those same foods are filled with chemicals and artificial additives, which inherently cause adverse effects such as chronic inflammation, sluggish metabolism, structural cellular damage and poor communication among cells. These effects are all part of the pathophysiological cascade that leads to the occurrence of the disease.

Nutrient-poor foods line the supermarket shelves. They are often the ones that are highly processed and refined, the ones that have long labels listing confusing ingredients. They actually rob us of the nutrients our bodies need to create and maintain a state of health.

So what’s the alternative to nutrient-poor foods?  Look for the nutrient-dense ones. There are plenty of them if you know what to look for. Create your meals and snacks from a combination of minimally processed (i.e., close to their natural state) fruits, vegetables, beans, nuts, seeds, whole grains, and if not a vegetarian, high quality meat and animal products. These give you lots of nutrients per calorie, so while getting your nutrition from these foods, you are not getting unnecessary calories. High quality proteins, fats and carbohydrates, high concentrations of vitamins and minerals, and the presence of phytonutrients – special powerhouse nutrients found only in plant foods – make nutrient-dense foods our building blocks. They are the source of our cell structures, enzymes, hormones and metabolic pathways. They become the signals that let our cells communicate properly with each other. They become the molecules that regulate the function of our DNA, our genes.

Among the nutritionally dense foods, certain ones contain some of the most powerful phytonutrients, thus having a superior ability to alter disease. Leafy green vegetables, berries and pomegranates are superfoods at the top of the list. Eating them or drinking high quality juice made from them sends nutritional punches and health benefits that scientists are now revealing regularly.

If you choose to consume a fruit (or vegetable) by juice, it’s important to make sure you are getting very similar nutritional benefits as the whole fruit.  A high quality nutrient-dense juice will use fresh whole fruit, will not have its nutrients destroyed by the juicing process itself (which occurs with many juices on the market), and will not contain added sugar, high fructose corn syrup (a very unhealthy refined sugar substitute), artificial colors or flavors. It will be made completely of the fruit it claims to be.

POM Wonderful 100% Pomegranate Juice is a high quality nutrient-dense juice. Its juicing process presses the whole fruit, so the bulk of the nutrients of the pomegranate remain in the juice. It is naturally packed with vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients, and since pomegranates are not always available at the market, it’s the perfect way to have pomegranates in your diet year round.