Pomegranate may benefit diabetes patients

HAIFA, Israel, Aug. 24 (UPI) -- Diabetes patients who drank pomegranate juice had a reduced risk for arteriosclerosis and a reduced uptake of "bad" cholesterol, an Israeli study finds.

Technion-Israel Institute of Technology researchers had 20 subjects drink 6 ounces of pomegranate juice per day for three months. The study, published in the journal Arteriosclerosis, found the participants experienced a reduced risk for arteriosclerosis, a condition that leads to arterial wall thickening and hardening. Arteriosclerosis accounts for 80 percent of all deaths among diabetic patients.

The researchers also found that drinking pomegranate juice reduced the uptake of oxidized LDL -- "bad" cholesterol.

Lead researcher Michael Aviram, of the Technion Faculty of Medicine, says that sugars contained in pomegranate juice did not worsen diabetes disease parameters -- including blood sugar levels -- in the patients.

"In most juices, sugars are present in free -- and harmful -- forms," explained Aviram. "In pomegranate juice, however, the sugars are attached to unique antioxidants, which actually make these sugars protective against arteriosclerosis."