It's a POM Wonderful week!

Last week was a tough one here. I was trapped in a house of sickness as my son, daughter, and husband all had the local crud. It made for long nights and no time or inspiration to post. Everyone seems better or on the mend now, and I have yet to catch the crud (knock on wood), so let's get started on a wonderful week!

A few weeks ago I was contacted by POM Wonderful to see if I'd like to try some of their pomegranate juice. Well, of course I did! Have you tried pomegranate juice before? I'm not a big juice fan - I typically don't like the taste - but I DO like pomegranate juice. Here's what my husband has to say about the flavor, "It has the right amount of tartness and isn't too sweet like grape juice. ... It's like cranberry juice without the bitterness and like grape juice without the cloying sweetness." I'll have to agree with him. It is quite like cran-grape juice, only better tasting and without the added sugar. My son, who is crazy about pomegranates, thought this juice was the best juice ever. (It didn't hurt that it came in a fun container.)
I am also generally not a fan of juice because most are empty calories. So many juices are mixed with apple or pear or white grape juice - junk juices, in my opinion. Look at kids' juices - most are nothing more than flavored apple juice. (I could go on, but I'll save my juice rant for another day.) There are some juices that are full of good stuff for your body, though - orange juice, cranberry juice, and purple grape juice come to mind. While whole oranges and cranberries and grapes still have more to offer than their juice, the juice of these fruits is still loaded with antioxidants and important vitamins and nutrients. We can add pomegranate juice to the good-juice list too.

POM Wonderful juice is 100% pomegranate juice with no added sugars, preservatives, colors, or filler juices. POM grows their own pomegranates (the "Wonderful" variety - for real!) in California and even makes their own bottles. POM says that not all pomegranates are created equally (think Concord grape juice versus white grape juice), and the Wonderful pomegranate is the cream of the crop when it comes to pomegranates.

POM Wonderful has provided a considerable amount of money (to the tune of $25 million) toward clinical research on pomegranates and their juice. In the clinical studies, participants drank 8 ounces of POM Wonderful Pomegranate juice daily. These POM funded studies showed potential benefits to cardiovascular health (especially as related to arterial plaque formation), prostate health (slower PSA increase), erectile function (sorry, I'm not going there), and antioxidant potency. Their studies showed that POM Wonderful juice had more and better antioxidants than red wine, grape juice, blueberry juice, cranberry juice, and green tea.

POM Wonderful is not cheap, but it is so good and packed with good stuff that we will be buying it again. Good tasting and good for you - a doubly good thing!

GIVEAWAY TIME!

And now for the good stuff - win a coupon for a free 16 oz. bottle of POM Wonderful! POM very generously supplied 3 coupons for a free 16 oz. bottle of POM Wonderful Pomegranate juice to use in a giveaway here. To enter for a chance to win a coupon, simple leave a comment! You have until noon Sunday, February 22 to enter. The more comments you leave, the more chances you have to win! I'll draw 3 winners (and yes, you can win more than once if you comment more than once) Sunday afternoon and announce the winners on Monday.

And now a little comment about free samples. I have accepted free samples from companies in the past and will do so in the future. BUT, I only post on freebies that I can comfortably say that we enjoyed. If I don't like the product, I won't post on it (this has happened before). I see no need to disparage a company that was kind enough to provide a sample, but I also will not compromise my reputation by posting a positive review about a product that I did not enjoy (unless the company just wants the review - good or bad).