Healing Benefits of Pomegranates
Pomegranates are popular, known especially for being high in antioxidants. What doesn’t get enough attention is what a godsend this fruit is for dissolving gallstones and kidney stones, nodules, calcifications, and small cysts such as ganglia cysts. It also has anti-tumor properties. Each of the fruit’s many jewellike, juicy capsules (technically called arils, though better known as seeds) inside a pomegranate contains a universe. Pomegranate seeds freshly broken open—whether between your teeth or in a juicer—release the full power of each of those tiny universes to come to your aid.
When you consume fresh pomegranate, a chemical reaction occurs whenever the fruit’s acids (which are filled with phytochemicals such as anthocyanins) come into contact with the types of unhealthy hardenings formed from bile, protein buildup, and toxic forms of calcium. Immediately, they start to break down. Bringing pomegranate into your life on a regular basis is especially beneficial if you suffer from PCOS.
Pomegranate is a great blood builder, as it strengthens both red and white cell counts. It serves an important role in blood sugar, too, by restoring precious glucose reserves to the liver, so that the liver can release this glucose into the bloodstream as needed. This process in turn protects the adrenal glands—because if you go for several hours without eating and your liver doesn’t have glucose reserves, then your adrenals are forced to pump hormones such as cortisol into your blood to keep you going, leading to overactive adrenal glands and eventual burnout. So if you’re looking for adrenal balance and blood sugar stabilization, turn to pomegranates. Pomegranates’ high-quality glucose also makes them a brain food, helping with focus and concentration.
Further, pomegranates contain trace minerals such as iron, manganese, potassium, and chromium that are very bioavailable and easily assimilable. Plus, consuming pomegranates helps unclog pores and hair follicles, encouraging hair growth where it’s needed and helping the skin and scalp overall. Pomegranates are amazing for regulating hormones, because they flush out toxic ones such as unproductive estrogens that contribute to cancers. This fruit also helps detoxify DDT and other pesticides, eliminate unproductive lactic acid buildup in the muscles, and clear out earwax and minimize new production of it.
CONDITIONS
If you have any of the following conditions, try bringing pomegranates into your life:
Alzheimer’s disease, insomnia, dementia, adrenal fatigue, diabetes, hypoglycemia, earwax buildup, alopecia, gallstones, kidney stones, mold exposure, nodules, calcifications, Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)/mononucleosis, Raynaud’s syndrome, adenomas, autism, plantar fasciitis, Lyme disease, Morton’s neuroma, tumors, polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS)
SYMPTOMS
If you have any of the following symptoms, try bringing pomegranates into your life:
Brain fog, memory loss, confusion, cysts, calcifications, disorientation, trouble focusing, dandruff, weight gain, persistent hunger, hair loss, muscle cramps, leg cramps, blood sugar imbalances, myelin nerve damage, trigeminal neuralgia, scar tissue in the liver, back pain, frozen shoulder, body pain, ear pain, eye floaters, foot drop, rib pain, foot pain, head pain, hives, inflammation, itchy skin, liver heat, neuralgia
EMOTIONAL SUPPORT
Pomegranates are a critical food for the person who struggles with impatience on a daily basis—and doesn’t believe her or his impatience is the problem, but rather everyone else is to blame. If you know someone like this, offer her or him a pomegranate. It will shift the energy and point your companion in the direction of composure, compassion, and patience. If you feel that someone’s impatience is directed at you and it’s throwing you off your game, turn to pomegranates to help you keep your equanimity and focus.
SPIRITUAL LESSON
When you’re dealing with a pomegranate, there’s not much you can do to contain the mess. As careful as you may be, inevitably an aril bursts at just the wrong moment, and you end up with red stains on your carpet, clothes, countertop, walls, or fingers. We’ve all learned not to wear a silk blouse or tie when excavating a pomegranate. Opening a pomegranate requires us to put on our old jeans and a ragged sweatshirt—creative wear, the same clothes we’d wear if we were going to paint—and to approach the activity knowing it’s going to get messy (and that it’s well worth the reward). Consider this the next time a situation presents you with the opportunity for creativity and a rewarding outcome. Are you thinking of walking away because it could get messy? Or are you about to jump in head first without being prepared? Pomegranates teach us both to brace for mess and embrace it, if we want to get the most out of what comes our way.
TIPS
* Eat one or more pomegranates daily to reap the most benefits.
* Get creative with how you use pomegranates. You can sprinkle the little seeds anywhere—on salads, hummus, guacamole, or even on top of a stir-fry you’ve just cooked.
* If you’re concerned about excessive hunger, overeating, and/or weight gain, eat pomegranate seeds before a meal as an appetite suppressant.
Excerpt from Anthony William’s book Life-Changing Foods, Hay House, 2016