Pomegranate, the food of the gods

Pomegranates are now appearing on most modern menus. Picture / Carolyn Robertson

We bloated and bored wastrels of the over-privileged West have declared a new superfood.

Blueberries? Don't make me laugh. Avocados? So last year. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the pomegranate.

It is the superfood that is so super it makes all the other superfood look, well, just like food.

Everyone is doing it. Pomegranate juice has become Britain's fastest-growing fruit drink. Supermarket chain Tesco reports sales of pomegranate juice are up 300 per sent since the start of the year; that is 500,000 litres a week.

Zoe Parker, a juice buyer for Tesco has never seen anything like it. "Britain has fallen head-over-heels in love with pomegranate juice," she says.

In New Zealand, pomegranate or its jus is appearing on the best menus. White has used it, so have Craft and Dine.

So what is this superfood said to do for you? Well, fight heart disease, protect unborn children from brain damage, lower blood pressure, reduce the signs of ageing, increase fertility; smooth, cleanse and protect your skin from the sun.

Laboratory research suggests the pomegranate also "shows promise" against skin, breast and prostate cancer; menopausal symptoms, ulcers, HIV, the herpes virus and erectile dysfunction.

Pomegranates stop you from dying. In America, at least, this seems to be the message. Across Los Angeles, giant billboards promoting pomegranate juice are emblazoned with the message: Defy death.

The pomtini - a pomegranate martini - is a favourite at Hollywood parties and was the official cocktail at last year's Oscars.

There is nothing new in the world, and, as ever, the Greeks were there first. Persephone, the goddess of agriculture, was offered a pomegranate by Hades. Once she had eaten it, it was her destiny to stay with Hades in the underworld for all time.

Persephone held out initially, but in the end could resist everything except temptation, and scoffed the fruit in a weak moment. So the modern concept of the guilt-ridden snack was born. A moment on the lips became a lifetime by the Styx.

In Greek mythology, the pomegranate symbolised both death and fertility, a confusing negative/positive message for ancient consumers and one which the Chinese pomegranate PRs were quick to put right by making the fruit a symbol of immortality and fertility centuries later.

The pomegranate also features prominently in the Bible and the Koran, where it is called "a gift from God".

Scientists at the Lipid Research Laboratory in Israel say drinking pomegranate juice regularly can reduce the size of atherosclerotic lesions which narrow the arteries and may cause heart failure. They have also confirmed that, as a rich source of folic acid, the fruit can assist the healthy development of babies. And pomegranates are full to bursting with antioxidants. Dr Richard Bogle at Hammersmith hospital, says: "Preliminary studies suggest pomegranate juice may contain almost three times the total antioxidant ability compared to the same quantity of green tea or red wine."

TV chef Gordon Ramsay is more eloquent in his inclusion of Britain's new favourite fruit in a dish. "F***ing revolting," he said of a pomegranate risotto on Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares.

- INDEPENDENT