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Pomegranate Flavored WaterPomegranate, Punica granatum L., is steeped in history and romance and almost in a class by itself, the pomegranate, Punica granatum L., belongs to the family Punicaceae which includes only one genus and two species, the other one, little-known, being P. protopunica Balf. peculiar to the island of Socotra. Despite its ancient background, the pomegranate has acquired only a relatively few commonly recognized vernacular names apart from its many regional epithets in India, most of which are variations on the Sanskrit dadima or dalim, and the Persian dulim or dulima. By the French it is called grenade; by the Spanish, granada (the fruit), granado (the plant); by the Dutch, granaatappel, and Germans, granatapfel; by the Italians, melogranato, melograno granato, pomo granato, or pomo punico. In Indonesia, it is gangsalan; in Thailand, tab tim; and in Malaya, delima. Brazilians know it as roma, romeira or romazeira. The Quecchi Indian name in Guatemala is granad. The Samoan name is limoni. The generic term, Punica, was the Roman name for Carthage from whence the best pomegranates came to Italy. |
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Hint TangerineTake a taste on the tangy side. |
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| The pomegranate tree is native from Iran to the Himalayas in northern India
and has been cultivated since ancient times throughout the Mediterranean region
of Asia, Africa and Europe. The fruit was used in many ways as it is today and
was featured in Egyptian mythology and art, praised in the Old Testament of the
Bible and in the Babylonian Talmud, and it was carried by desert caravans for
the sake of its thirst-quenching juice. It traveled to central and southern
India from Iran about the first century A.D. and was reported growing in
Indonesia in 1416. It has been widely cultivated throughout India and drier
parts of southeast Asia, Malaya, the East Indies and tropical Africa. The most
important growing regions are Egypt, China, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh,
Iran, Iraq, India, Burma and Saudi Arabia. There are some commercial orchards in
Israel on the coastal plain and in the Jordan Valley.
It is rather commonly planted and has become naturalized in Bermuda where it was first recorded in 1621, but only occasionally seen in the Bahamas, West Indies and warm areas of South and Central America. Many people grow it at cool altitudes in the interior of Honduras. In Mexico it is frequently planted, and it is sometimes found in gardens in Hawaii. The tree was introduced in California by Spanish settlers in 1769. It is grown for its fruit mostly in the dry zones of that state and Arizona. In California, commercial pomegranate cultivation is concentrated in Tulare, Fresno and Kern counties, with small plantings in Imperial and Riverside counties. There were 2,000 acres (810 ha) of hearing trees in these areas in the 1920's. Production declined from lack of demand in the 1930's but new plantings were made when demand increased in the 1960's. |
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Sugar industry denies links between sugars and obesity Given everything we now know to be true about sugar and high-fructose corn syrup, I find it absolutely stunning that the sugar industry continues to deny any link whatsoever between the consumption of sugar and chronic diseases like obesity and diabetes. The sugar industry says that sugar is a completely healthy food, that there's no such thing as an unhealthy food, and that sugar can be part of a healthy diet. I disagree strongly with that.
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