Heart Health Tip: Pomegranate-And-Date Juice Cuts Heart Attacks

Like everyone else, you have a heart, sure. And that heart could lead to an early attack too.

Yours.

Never mind. You can reduce your risks of a heart attack by drinking just a four-ounce glass of pomegranate juice with three dates everyday. They would help to protect you against the buildup of lipids on the arterial walls by as much as 33%, say Israeli researchers.

Pomegranate juice and dates in fact get along like a house on fire. They make a terrific pair battling heart disease together, as their phenolic antioxidants work in different ways, says lead author Professor Michael Aviram, according to hindustantimes.

He points out that the main ingredients in pomegranate juice, are plant-derived polyphenolic antioxidants, due to which the body's oxidation process reduces its speed as well as oxidative stress.

The juice can lower a process called atherosclerosis, in which the arteries become clogged up due to fatty deposits known as plaques, according to daily mail.

The oxidation of low-density lipoprotein (LCL) cholesterol, known also as "bad-cholesterol" tends to get hampered, due to the phenolic radical scavenger antioxidants in dates. They also stoke the elimination of cholesterol from arterial cells in touch with lipids, according to Professor Aviram.

Prof Aviram's team worked with arterial cells as well as high cholesterol levels of mice in order to test the special combination of pomegranate juice and dates, including their ground pits. The concoction brought down the oxidative stress in the arterial wall by 33% as well as the arterial cholesterol content by 28%, according to the article published in the journal Food & Function.

While the concoction is powerful, it works better if the pits are ground and consumed. Another test in 2010 by a research team from the University of California at Riverside showed that phenylpropanoids, hydrobenzoic acids, flavones and conjugated fatty acids are ingredients that prevent cancer from spreading by weakening their attraction to a chemical signal that indicates their attachment to the "bone, bone marrow, lungs and lymph nodes, which usually results in death."

A list of foods that lower LDL cholesterol include: high-fibre fare such as oatmeal, oat bran, kidney beans, apples, pears and barley; items high in Omega 3s such as salmon, mackerel, lake trout, herring, sardines, albacore tuna and halibut and finally nuts such as almonds or walnuts containing polyunsaturated fatty acids; and finally olive oil.