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Yesterday I published Green Tea: Bad For Lowering Blood Sugar, Good For Easing Hunger. I'm a big believer in the health benefits of green tea, so that article was something I felt compelled to write. And for over two years, I've been a huge fan of POM Wonderful and its healthy beverages. But it came about in an interesting way. Because I write about health and wellness, back in 2009, a POM Wonderful representative emailed me with an invitation to try their 100% Pomegranate Juice. I accepted the offer and after drinking one bottle, I was impressed. So I wrote an unbiased and unsolicited (on the part of POM Wonderful) review of the pomegranate juice. The way I saw it, if there was a healthy and great tasting product on the market that my readers should know about, it was my obligation to tell them. And I did. As for the people at POM Wonderful, well they didn't have any idea of what I was going to say. I only told them that I was going to write a review of their 100% Pomegranate Juice. On the day the article was published, I sent an email to the company representative with a link to it. The fact that POM Wonderful accepted what I had to say impressed me even more.

Sometime later they offered to send samples of POMx Tea. Since this tea was made with pomegranate extract, I wondered how good it would be. I gave the company permission to send me samples of their new product. I was almost as impressed with this latest beverage as I had been with the pomegranate juice. So I wrote a post about it. And as with the POM Wonderful 100% Pomegranate Juice Review, the POMx Tea review was also unbiased and unsolicited. All of this took place in 2009.

As many of my long time readers know, in November 2009 I moved Living Fit, Healthy and Happy from blogger to TypePad. When I wrote about POM Wonderful's products, those articles were originally on blogger. Many of my new readers never had an opportunity to read about my opinions of the product. So what I'm doing today is re-posting my POMx Tea review with some new updates added in. 

And now for the review:

Anti-oxidants are essential to the health of the body ranging from prevention against certain cancers and other diseases to improved cardiovascular health. Pomegranate juice is high in anti-oxidants. Studies have shown that pomegranate juice can be effective in the prevention of certain cancers, cardiovascular and inflammatory diseases. Many of the therapeutic benefits of pomegranate juice were mentioned in my article POM Wonderful 100 % Pomegranate Juice Product Review. POMx Tea -- the Antioxidant Super Tea is also produced by California based POM Wonderful and contains a pomegranate extract (POMx) which distinguishes it from teas produced by other companies. The fact that this particular tea was made with POMx peaked my curiosity and I sought to learn more about the potential health benefits of the product. This led me to spend some time at the health library reviewing the literature on pomegranate extract.

There are over a dozen studies supporting that point to amazing therapeutic benefits that are provided by pomegranate extract. Because of the fact that this is a product review, I'll just briefly mention the findings of two separate studies. Pomegranate extract has been shown to inhibit the activity of mast cells and the production of pro-inflammatory chemicals (1) in cell cultures pre-treated with the extract. An animal model using arthritic mice indicate that ingestion of pomegranate extract delays the onset of arthritis (2). Even though neither of these studies involve human models, the results are quite intriguing. The use of pomegranate juice as a therapeutic and curative agent may revolutionize the treatment of asthma, arthritis, and other autoimmune and inflammatory diseases in humans. Because pomegranate is a natural product it maybe better tolerated than certain synthetic compounds that are currently used to treat the aforementioned diseases. From a scientific standpoint, this is very intriguing. These findings became even more interesting when I learned that POMx Tea -- the Antioxidant Super Tea produced by POM Wonderful contains pomegranate extract (POMx).

I like this product. POMx Tea -- the Antioxidant Super Tea comes in 5 flavors and is produced from whole-leaf, hand picked tea. POMx Tea -- the Antioxidant Super Tea comes in 16 oz bottles and only is available in light or regular. POMx Tea -- the Antioxidant Super Tea is a perishable item and should be refrigerated to preserve freshness. Another important thing to keep in mind is that POMx Tea -- the Antioxidant Super tea is sweetened with fructose. This can be a downside for people who avoid sugary foods and beverages. For those people I suggest that you weigh the benefits provided by the anti-oxidant polyphenols of POMx Tea -- the Antioxidant Super Tea against what is known about fructose. I'm also cutting back on sugar but I do like this product. I drink unsweetened and non flavored tea green tea because of its antioxidant properties, taste is just secondary to me. So when I had a glass of Pomegranate Hibiscus green tea, I was very surprised. It has a mild flavor from the hibiscus juice concentrate and is very refreshing. I've never tasted hibiscus so this was a new experience for me. I also had a glass of Pomegranate Peach Passion White Tea. This particular tea is flavored with peach juice and passionfruit juice from concentrate, the peach flavor was more distinctive and is what I enjoyed most about this beverage.

In my opinion, POMx Tea is better when it is cooled in the refrigerator; it brings out more flavor. And since it comes in a environmentally friendly plastic bottles, you can take it almost anywhere. You can be purchase this economical beverage at your local supermarket. So if you haven't yet had a glass of refreshing POMx tea, head on out to your local supermarket and buy some.

Update: To this day I continue drinking POMx Tea. I like it best before a morning workout in the gym.  It's a good alternative to soda pop and fruit juice drinks which are laden with sugar and don't provide much nutritional value.

You can read more about POMx Tea -- the Antioxidant Super Tea and other POM products by visiting POM Wonderful's official website.

Who can do what God does? Can any of you command the stones to become men? or have any of you knowledge about the foundations of the earth? Who among you can give the mighty shout that shall bring down mountains? None of you can! Praise the Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour and Redeemer! For Jesus is He who can do these things! It is Jesus who created the earth and can give the shout to bring down mountains! Praise our Lord Jesus Christ!

References

1. Rasheed et al: Polyphenol-rich pomegranate fruit extract (POMx) suppresses PMACI-induced expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines by inhibiting the activation of MAP Kinases and NF-κB in human KU812 cells. Journal of Inflammation 2009, 6:1.

2. Meenashki et al: Consumption of hydrolyzable tannins-rich pomegranate extract suppresses inflammation and joint damage in rheumatoid arthritis. Nutrition 24 (2008) 733-743.

"POMx Tea --the Antioxidant Super Tea Product Review" copyright 2009, 2011 Living Fit, Healthy and Happy. All Rights Reserved.