Two related stories regarding the claims made for pomegranate juice.

Pomegranate juice has been hyped to do many things: fight cancer, increase fertility, boost sex drive, reduce erectile dysfunction, stave off heart disease, even guard against Alzheimer’s disease.

The potential health benefits of pomegranate juice are attributed to antioxidants called polyphenols. (Antioxidants are thought to guard against free radicals – unstable oxygen molecules in the body that can damage cells.) The antioxidants in pomegranate juice have been shown to be as potent – or more – than blueberries, purple grape juice and green tea.

The truth is, there’s flimsy evidence that pomegranate juice lives up to any of these claims, at least in humans.*

(*From http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health-and-fitness/ask-a-health-expert/can-pomegranate-juice-really-prevent-cancer/article6703344/)

1. Pomegranate Juice May Slow Prostate Cancer

A few years back, pomegranate juice stole the spotlight as the latest exotic healthy drink. But this time, we have a product with real evidence backing its efficacy, particularly for men’s health.

A new study has shown that drinking eight ounces of pomegranate juice on a daily basis may slow down the progress of localized prostate cancer (prostate cancer that hasn’t spread).

The study included 48 men who had surgery or radiation therapy to treat localized prostate cancer. When the study started in 2003, the men’s PSA levels (prostate specific antigen) were doubling every 15 months. In prostate cancer patients, PSA is used to monitor their cancer.

All of the subjects drank eight ounces of pomegranate juice on a daily basis. The researchers found that this slowed down the time it took for their PSA levels to double.

The researchers continued to monitor the patients every three months. Fifteen of the patients stayed with the study for a little more than five years, and it typically took four times longer for their PSA levels to double when they were drinking pomegranate juice.

You might be suspicious when you learn that five of the six researchers from the study had ties to POM Wonderful, which makes the pomegranate juice used in the study. But another team conducted research in 2007, and they found that their own pomegranate juice slowed the growth of tumors as well.

For more on this story go to:

http://www.dietsinreview.com/diet_column/04/pomegranate-juice-may-slow-prostate-cancer/

2. Yes, Pomegranates Are Good For You, But HOW Good?

• Brandi, selected from Diets in Review

How far can a company go in making claims about their product’s benefits in order to sell it? In the case of POM Wonderful, the Federal Trade Commission upheld a judge’s ruling that the claims their juices can treat heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer’s and strokes as it “cheats death,” is going too far.

Cases like these are neither few nor far between, as a cottage industry has sprung up around the premise that companies should be held accountable for marketing terms such as “natural,” “helps lower cholesterol” or “fresh.” POM’s case, however, goes up against the FTC itself, not an individual, and could therefore lead to changes in how many other food and drink makers are able to market their products.

The ads in question appeared in such national publications as The New York Times, Prevention, Fitness, Parade, and billboards, bus stops and online. From an advertising standpoint, they’re genius, but to the FTC, they needed to be reined in. Crisp, simply designed photographs of pomegranate juice proclaim, “Ace your EKG – a glass a day can reduce plaque by 30%,” “More naturally occurring antioxidants than any other drink,” and a cartoon of a bottle of POM exclaiming, “I’m off to save prostates!”

POM Wonderful disagreed. “This order ignores what $35 million of peer-reviewed scientific research, centuries of traditional medicine and plain common sense have taught us: antioxidant-rich pomegranate products are good for you,” they wrote in a press release.

The FTC ruled that POM’s $35 million dollars worth of scientific research are not enough to make claims such as the ones found in their advertising. Their complaint? POM funded the studies themselves. They ordered at least two controlled clinical, peer-reviewed studies, the gold standard of scientific research, to be cited if the drink maker wants to make claims about their product.

Some, like writer Bruce Goldman with Examiner.com, believe the commission overstepped its bounds in the ruling.

“For over two years, the Federal Trade Commission and POM Wonderful LLC have been locked in legal battle over who was overreaching – POM in making health claims in its advertising or the FTC in exercising authority it doesn’t have. Yesterday, the full Federal Trade Commission declared the winner was…the Federal Trade Commission,” Goldman wrote.

Conflict of interest it may be, POM is barred from making any more health claims intended to diagnose, treat or prevent any disease. They have 60 days to appeal the ruling, so this may not be the last we hear of this case.

Freedom of speech should be protected, and consumers cannot act as if they are lost sheep with no resources before them to understand whether a product will deliver promises or potentially harm them. But in this case, POM’s claims may come across as too outlandish. They have a good product, but let it speak for itself without making unsubstantiated claims.

For more  on this story go to:

http://www.care2.com/greenliving/yes-pomegranates-are-good-for-you-but-how-good.html#ixzz2IYeSeNJG