How Many Calories in a Pomegranate?

Question: How Many Calories in a Pomegranate?

Answer: Pomegranates are ancient fruits native to the Middle East. When you prepare a pomegranate, you remove the seeds (properly called arils) from the inedible white rind. The arils from one pomegranate has 234 calories. It also has 28 milligrams calcium, 34 milligrams magnesium, 666 milligrams potassium, 29 milligrams vitamin C, 1.7 milligrams vitamin E, ad 46 micrograms vitamin K.

Pomegranates are rich in antioxidant phytochemicals that can have a healthy impact on your body. Eating pomegranates or drinking the juice my help prevent prostate cancer, reduce the build up of plaque that leads to atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries), and help keep blood lipid levels healthy. This includes total cholesterol, HDL cholesterol (the good kind) and LDL cholesterol (the bad kind). Pomegranate seeds have been studied and appear to enhance immune function as well.

More About Pomegranates

• Pomegranate History, Information and Recipes
• Pomegranate and Inflammatory Bowel Disease
• How Pomegranates Got Their Name
• Can Kids Eat Pomegranate Seeds?
• How To De-Seed a Pomegranate

_Sources:

_{Aviram M, Dornfeld L, Kaplan M, Coleman R, Gaitini D, Nitecki S, Hofman A, Rosenblat M, Volkova N, Presser D, Attias J, Hayek T, Fuhrman B. "Pomegranate juice flavonoids inhibit low-density lipoprotein oxidation and cardiovascular diseases: studies in atherosclerotic mice and in humans." Drugs Exp Clin Res. 2002;28(2-3):49-62.}

_{Malik A, Afaq F, Sarfaraz S, Adhami VM, Syed DN, Mukhtar H. "Pomegranate fruit juice for chemoprevention and chemotherapy of prostate cancer." Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2005 Oct 11;102(41):14813-8. Epub 2005 Sep 28.}

_{Rosenblat M, Hayek T, Aviram M. "Anti-oxidative effects of pomegranate juice (PJ) consumption by diabetic patients on serum and on macrophages." Atherosclerosis. 2005 Oct 11.}

_{Yamasaki M, Kitagawa T, Koyanagi N, Chujo H, Maeda H, Kohno-Murase J, Imamura J, Tachibana H, Yamada K. "Dietary effect of pomegranate seed oil on immune function and lipid metabolism in mice." Nutrition. 2005 Oct 10}

_{United States Department of Agriculture National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference Release 24. "Nutrient data for 09286, Pomegranates, raw." Accessed February 6, 2012. http://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/foods/show/2460.}