Pomegranate juice

The secret to a healthy heart might just lie in a glass of fresh pomegranate juice, say scientists.

If scientists at the Lipid Research Laboratory in Haifa are to be believed, the secret to a healthy heart might just lie in a glass of pomegranate juice.

Pomegranate juice has been found to slow down heart muscle damage caused by factors like cholesterol and also reduces blood pressure, reports the Daily Mail.

Biochemists have shown that the juice can reduce the size of atherosclerotic lesions, which narrow arteries and results in heart disease - by almost half.

It also fights against the oxidation of bad cholesterol, a high level of which has been linked to an increased risk of heart attack and stroke.

"The potential exists for high-risk patients to be spared bypass surgery simply by drinking pomegranate juice," claims Dr. Michael Aviram, a biochemist at Lipid Research Laboratory.

He is working to develop a pill with the same medicinal attributes as the juice, which is rich source of flavonoids that have protective qualities for the heart.

Roger Corder, a professor of experimental therapeutics at the William Harvey Research Institute in London, says that a glass of pomegranate juice is equivalent to two glasses of red wine, ten cups of green tea, six cups of cocoa or four glasses of cranberry juice, all of which contain flavonoids.