I keep hearing about antioxidants, but I don’t really understand what the practical, real-life benefits are. I understand there are a lot of antioxidants in pomegranates & that we should be either eating them or drinking the juice. Can someone tell me why? How much juice minimum per day? Do you not really get the benefits unless you eat the pomegranate? I remember with fondness eating them as a child, but a recent experment left me thinking “yuck, I am chewing seeds.” What’s the scoop?
Pomegranites are yummy. So is the juice. Both contain lots of anti-oxidants. The seeds also provide fiber.
Of the two, fiber and anti-oxidants, the only one which has been demonstrated to be healthy is the fiber. Anti-oxidants have lots of nice theories attached to them as to why they’re healthy, but this value has not yet been demonstrated by bona fide scientific studies.
No, pomegranates are yummy. Pomegranites are hard and cold, but make nice counter tops. 
The juice also contains lots and lots of sugar, which may or not be a problem for you.
And just a note that pomegranates are an ancient birth control method, though not anywhere near reliable in today’s world. It’s being researched by at least one pharmaceutical company for use as a contraceptive. Chances are good that you’d have to eat a chunk of the whole fruit, rind and all, for it to be anywhere remotely effective, and it would taste horribly bitter. Still, if you’re having trouble conceiving (and you want to), it might be best to lay off large quantities of pomegranate pips or juice.
It works very well as a contraceptive, if you hold it, firmly between your knees.
I wasn’t thinking about the knees, actually. More like, wondering if one has to use half of it as a diaphragm.
I bought a bottle of Pom a while back. It tasted like cranberry juice swirled around in an ashtray.
There are some interesting preliminary studies (almost all of which are in mice or involve cells in tissue culture) indicating possible health benefits of pomegranate juice for humans (for slowing down atherosclerosis or preventing one or more types of cancer), related to its antioxidant properties. A cautionary note fromthis cite:
“Previous studies on red wine, black tea, and purple grape juice have already indicated these antioxidant-rich beverages can protect arteries from damage by improving blood flow. However, large clinical trials using different antioxidants have yet to show that antioxidants can prevent heart attacks and other major heart-related events.”
We’re hearing more about pomegranate juice now, partly because one company selling it has bankrolled a couple of these preliminary studies. A typical problem is that food and supplement sellers use such studies as marketing tools, even if they’re not adequate proof of the products’ value.
This wouldn’t stop me from drinking pomegranate juice on occasion (tastes OK to me, especially as part of my usual mix of fruit juices and soft drinks), but I wouldn’t binge on it just yet.
Part of the benefit of eating the fruit is that by squeezing the arils off the seeds, you can propel the tiny projectiles at unsuspecting targets. Makes for hours of household fun.
Also eating a pomegranite seed may force you to spend a month in Hades. Again, this may or may not be a problem for you.
Judging from the sudden influx of pomegranate juice-related products in my supermarket, I’m guessing that the practical real-life benefits are to enrich the pomegranate growers.
Let’s face it, the pomegranate has always been a tough sell because even though the seeds taste good, eating one is a messy process. So apparently they’ve figured out how to juice them. But getting people to shell out three bucks for a small bottle of juice is going to be a lot easier if there are some perceived health benefits to the juice. So they’re riding the wave.
I’ve heard these claims, too, and when I looked at the nutritional label (click on the link under the picture) on a bottle of POM brand pomegranate juice, it doesn’t appear to have any vitamins in it. Where are these mysterious antioxidants? Isn’t vitamin C an antioxidant?
God I only WISH they were $3 a bottle here. Then I’d actually buy some every now and then. But at nearly $5 each, I can’t justify it 
As a possible useful tidbit of information:
Antioxidants are basically a method of neutralizing “free radicals”. A free radical is a compound that is slightly unstable due to having unpaired electrons, so it will tend to grab an electron from neighboring molecules. This may make the donating molecule a free radical, setting up a chain of electron swaps. Depending on the frequency of the swaps, and where they take place, this chemical reaction can lead to cellular damage. Antioxidants have the ability to give up electrons without becoming radicals themselves, stabilizing the system.
Note: this is mainly from info I remember from an episode of “Good Eats”, YMMV, IANAD, etc. Some more reference can be found here.