Pomegranates and Placentas
The placenta is a temporary organ that your body develops specifically for pregnancy. It is responsible for forming the umbilical cord and providing oxygen and nutrients to your little Babba. The placenta also removes waste from your baby's blood.
Once your baby is delivered, your body expels the placenta, see as though it no longer serves any purpose to you. Abnormal placental development, placental injury, or both, may be associated with:
Preterm birth
Hypertensive disorders
Central nervous system problems
Intrauterine growth restriction
*Placental issues are seen in about 5 to 10% of pregnancies around the world.
A huge factor that often contributes to problems with the placenta is oxidative stress. This is when there are too many cell-damaging monsters called free radicals, and not enough superhero antioxidants to fight off those pesky little buggers. Antioxidants are compounds that protect against free radicals, and they happen to be found abundantly in pomegranate juice. They are also found in most other darkly pigmented fruits such as blueberries and blackberries. Oxidative stress is often caused by anxiety, poor diet, and many other factors. This can result in complications such as inflammation, high blood pressure, and heart disease...No thank you!
Though plenty of other fruits are filled with antioxidants, pomegranate juice has one gorgeous antioxidant in particular, called polyphenol punicalagin, that has been specifically linked to reducing oxidative stress (Check out our post on sulforaphane to learn even more about oxidate stress).
A study, published by the American Journal of Physiology, found that when pregnant women (between 35-38 weeks) were given about 8oz of pomegranate juice a day, there was less injury in human placental tissue, as compared to women at the same stage of pregnancy who were given 8 oz of apple juice. Pomegranate juice is high in polyphenolic antioxidants, which were seen to protect against cell death, reduce oxidative stress, and reduce death of human fetal and placental cells when tested in a petri dish (Chen et al., 2012).
If that isn't enough, the same researchers also found that cells exposed to low oxygen or chemicals that simulate low oxygen, survived more frequently when exposed to pomegranate juice as compared to a sugar placebo (Chen et al., 2012).
This is a great, low-risk way to promote the health of your placenta, so your Babba can be as healthy and as happy as can be. Oh yeah, did we mention that it’s delicious too?.....so get to drinking Mammas!
* We always encourage eating the “whole food” (the whole pomegranate fruit rather than just the juice), which will likely be just as effective, plus you will get some great fiber along with it, but this study used pomegranate juice, so that is what we are presenting to you! The powders, however, will likely not be as effective. These are some cool ideas for future research!
