Hands down, one of my favorite fruits is the pomegranate.

While many people avoid eating this tart treat because of the time it takes to peel and prepare, I’ve always loved pulling out the seeds and enjoying their acidic, yet sweet, “pop.”

Now it seems that while I was relishing their taste, I might also have been doing something beneficial for my blood pressure.

That’s because according to a recent study published in the journal Nutrients, eating a pomegranate could help you lower your blood pressure as much as prescription medications.

Packed with polyphenols

Researchers studied the anti-hypertensive powers of both the fruit and the peel of the red superfruit using a rat model.

They focused in on the pomegranate because it’s known to have numerous health benefits and medical uses thanks to its rich levels of polyphenols like tannins, anthocyanins and flavonoids.

And it also delivers important organic acids, like gallic and ellagic acids – which have been shown to do everything from calm ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease to save the brain from amyloid plaques.

Pomegranates are also high in urolithin A, which researchers have discovered keeps the powerhouses of your cells — the mitochondria — functioning in tip-top shape.

So it’s easy to see why the scientists were eager to pit the pomegranate against high blood pressure.

Which is best, the fruit or the peel?

To do so the team gave the rats extracts of either the fruit, the seeds and the peel or straight ellagic acid. Then, they continued to monitor their systolic blood pressure (the top number in a blood pressure reading that measures the amount of pressure experienced by the arteries while the heart is beating).

And they completed a lipid analysis to watch the total cholesterol, triglycerides, HDL (‘good’ cholesterol), and LDL (or ‘bad’ cholesterol) of the rats after the study period.

Overall, the team found that both the fruit and the peel and seeds were effective at reducing cardiovascular risk.

However, they found that the parts of the pomegranate that are often considered non-edible had even more power.

The results showed that the extract made from the peel and seeds of the fruit also had:

• Anti-fibrotic effects, which could reduce damage to blood vessels and the heart
• Anti-inflammatory effects, which could support overall health and wellbeing and reduce disease risk
• The ability to reduce systolic blood pressure similar to the blood pressure drug, Captopril, at doses lower than that reported for ellagic acid

So while the pomegranate fruit may be great for your heart, it looks like it’s the peel for the win.

Getting more pomegranate in your daily diet

The good news is that it’s easy to incorporate pomegranate into your health regimen.

The fruit is easy to find in your local grocery store and even better, you can find supplements that contain extracts of pomegranate peel for sale online or in health food stores.

Just be sure to check the supplement facts label on the back of the bottle to ensure the extract is truly made using the peel, rather than the fruit.

Sources:

Extract from pomegranate peels and seeds shows anti-hypertensive properties – News Medical Life Sciences