Eating pomegranate with sweet fruits? Here’s what not to mix with this superfood

Pomegranate, a red fruit with juicy seeds, is often used in salads. It can also be enjoyed as a juice or smoothie with other healthy ingredients. Somehow, it sneaks into dishes due to its potential health benefits, including its potential to reduce bad cholesterol. Yes, there are pomegranate benefits, but mixing it with other fruits or ingredients may seem like a good idea. But combining it with certain fruits may do more harm than good. It may also interact with the prescribed drugs that you have to deal with health issues. So, before adding it to your diet, know what not to mix with pomegranate.

Pomegranate benefits

The list of pomegranate benefits includes:

1. Heart health

Pomegranate is full of antioxidants, such as flavonoids, and anthocyanins. They can help in reducing oxidative stress and fat build-up in blood vessels, says dietitian Ramya B. These antioxidants can reduce bad cholesterol or low-density lipoproteins (LDL) and increase good cholesterol or high-density lipoprotein (HDL), which in turn help to support heart health.

2. Arthritis

It is a degenerative joint disease caused due to inflammatory action that happens in the body. One of the pomegranate benefits is that it may help to manage rheumatoid arthritis complications by reducing the inflammation and oxidative stress, according to a research published in the International Journal of Clinical Practice in 2021.

3. Fertility

Pomegranate seed extract and fruit extract have a protective nature over embryos against oxidative stress. So, one of the pomegranate benefits is that the fruit may support both male and female fertility, says the expert.

How to eat pomegranate?

You can enjoy pomegranate benefits by having juice or eat the fruit in the following way:

• Cut the end of the fruit so that you can see the sections.
• Take a bowl, pull apart the sections. Make sure the arils fall in it.
• Take out the arils using your fingers.
• Rinse them properly before eating the fruit and enjoying pomegranate benefits.

What are the side effects of pomegranate?

While familiarising with pomegranate benefits, you should also know how it may harm your body. Don’t worry, it usually does not have side effects, but some people may experience the following:

• Diarrhea due to its high fructose content.
• There are also chances of people developing allergic reactions such as itching and swelling.
• Its high fibre content may make some people feel constipated.

You can enjoy pomegranate benefits by eating it in the morning or having it as a mid-morning snack. Don’t overeat the fruit, just half a cup of pomegranate seeds per day is enough, says Ramya.

What not to mix with pomegranate?

To enjoy pomegranate benefits, you can include it in numerous dishes, but avoid having or pairing it with the following:

1. Sweet fruits

Pomegranates are sub-acidic fruits or low acidic fruits. So, mixing them with sweet fruits like bananas and mangoes is not a good food combination. Mixing these juicy fruits can hamper your digestion. You may end up having diarrhea, especially if you have this combination in excess.

2. Warfarin

Termed as blood thinners, Warfarin is a prescribed drug used for controlling coagulation or blood clotting, which is important for your body to heal after an injury. Pomegranate may interact with Warfarin, as per a research published in the Journal of Food and Drug Analysis in 2018. It may increase the blood clotting rate in people treated with Warfarin.

3. Nitrendipine

It is a calcium channel blocker used to treat hypertension or high blood pressure. If you frequently drink pomegranate juice or have the fruit in excess to enjoy pomegranate benefits, it may reduce the intestinal metabolism of the drug, says the expert.

4. Statin

Statins are medicines that are prescribed to lower the level of LDL cholesterol, which is a risk factor for heart problems. In rare cases, having it with pomegranate, may cause rhabdomyolysis in which the muscle tissue breaks down leading to kidney damage.

5. ACE inhibitors

These medications are used to prevent kidney damage in people with diabetes and to treat heart failure. Pomegranate juice may have some of the same effects as these drugs and could make them too strong. So, if you combine them, you may experience side effects such as dizziness or headaches.

But there are some medications that don’t interact with pomegranate, including metformin, which is a common drug given to control diabetes, says the expert. Piracetam, a drug to improve mental performance and cognitive function, and theophylline, meant to treat asthma, can be safely consumed without worrying about interactions with pomegranate.

There are pomegranate benefits, but there are ways to enjoy them the right way. Eat the fruit or make a healthy juice. However, if you plan on mixing it with other ingredients, be careful. Combining the fruit with certain fruits or even medications may harm your body. It is better to consult a doctor before pairing it with other ingredients.