The Best Pomegranate Juice

by Shereen Jegtvig for Foodessentials.

Pomegranate juice is considered by many people to be a superfood because it is rich in natural compounds that can improve your health. These compounds called polyphenols and anthocyanins help to reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease, some forms of cancer and may help reduce the pain of arthritis.

You can buy whole pomegranates, but it’s a lot of work to removed the little ruby-red arils from the fruit. It’s much easier to buy pomegranate juice. There are several brands of juice that contain pomegranate. You can find 100% pomegranate juice or choose pomegranate juice blended with other juices for a variety of flavors.

Some are pure juice, while others have added high fructose corn syrup or artificial sweeteners. But why add sweeteners when the juice tastes so good on it’s own or blended with other fruit juices? Use the FoodEssentials database to pick out the best pomegranate juice for you.
Let’s take a look at some of the pomegranate juices listed by presence of sweetener.

Pomegranate Juices (Type of sweetener, color and preservative)

Brand	Product	Sweetener s	Colors	Preservs
Pom Wonderful	Pom/blueberry	None	None	None
Apple & Eve	Organic Pom	None	Natural	Vit C
L & A	All Pom	None	Natural	None
Northland	Pure Pom	None	Natural	None
Old Orchard	Healthy Balance Pom	Ace-K, Sucralose	Natural	Vit C, Citric Acid
Langer’s	Pomegranate	HFCS	Natural	Vit C, Citric Acid

Note: Natural colors include fruit juices, vegetable colorings and vitamin C.
Ace-K is acesulfame-K

Sweeteners:

As you can see, many brands of pomegranate juice are sold that don’t contain any added sweeteners. Probably since pomegranate juice is marketed (rightfully so) as a superfood. Most people choose superfoods for their health benefits and flavor and don’t want any additional stuff. However, two of the brands listed here contain sweeteners. Langer’s added high fructose corn syrup and Old Orchard Healthy Balance pomegranate juice has artificial sweeteners.

Artificial Colors:

None of these brands contain artificial colorants, which is great. Pom Wonderful doesn’t any colorings at all. Pomegranate juice is a rich red that doesn’t need any enhancement, and when blended with other darker colored juices, there’s not much need for any colors.

Preservatives:

Both the Langer’s and Old Orchard brands shown here use vitamin C and citric acid as preservatives, both of which are safe for most people to consume, although some people may wish to avoid the citric acid if they feel they are intolerant to it.

Common Allergens:

Langer’s contains high fructose corn syrup, however none of the products contain gluten, dairy products, sulphites or soy.

And the Winners Are…

Pom Wonderful, Apple & Eve, L & A and Northland all offer high quality pomegranate juice. I’d be inclined to pick L & A All Pom because a close inspection of the ingredients list shows that it has the most pomegranate juice of all these brands.

Learn More About Your Favorite Juice Drinks

Use our Foodessentials database to explore other types of fruit drinks:

Grape Juice Containing Sulfites

Kiwi Juice by Added Sweeteners

White Tea by Aspartame

Shereen Jegtvig has a masters degree in human nutrition and 16 years clinical experience in nutritional counseling. She writes about nutrition for About.com and TypeAMom.net. She is also the co-author of the upcoming book, Superfoods For Dummies.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Claims Halo effect
• Lower Cholesterol Through Diet
• Added Sugar increases risk of Heart Disease
• 29 Iphone apps for foodies
• FoodEssentials Data Overview