Pomegranate Juice for Diabetics

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Ivanhoe Newswire

(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Pomegranates -- fruit popular in India and the Middle East -- are proven to have health benefits ranging from prostate cancer protection to osteoarthritis prevention. In other studies, pomegranates have been shown to keep your heart healthy, and now, new research out of Israel reveals pomegranate juice may have important health benefits for patients with diabetes.

Diabetic patients who drank 6 ounces of pomegranate juice a day for three months were at less risk for atherosclerosis -- which leads to the arteries thickening and hardening -- and accounts for 80 percent of all deaths among diabetics.

Researchers say one surprising finding from the study was that the sugars in the juice did not worsen patients' blood sugar levels but did in fact contribute to reducing atherosclerosis risk.

This study of 20 patients is part of ongoing research at Technion-Israel Institute of Technology on the impact of antioxidants in different foods and beverages.

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SOURCE: Atherosclerosis, published online Aug. 25, 2006