Pomegranate juice is too sweet to be for weight loss

It's a pretty good bet that if you ate three pomegranates a day, you'd lose weight and live longer.

For one thing, given how finicky and labor-intensive it is to eat a pomegranate, you wouldn't have much time left to eat other foods.

Then there's the growing body of research suggesting that the polyphenolic antioxidants found in pomegranates (and in red grapes, blueberries, cranberries) have beneficial health effects that include improving cardiac health and reducing the risk of cancer.

Because of those health benefits, and because most Americans lack the time and patience for dealing with a pomegranate in the flesh, beverage makers are flooding supermarket aisles with what seems like a fine alternative: pomegranate juice.

These juices are frequently found in 12- to 16-ounce containers that resemble soft-drink bottles and seem designed for drinking on the run.

There are visual differences among them: color varies from pink to deep purple and ruddy brown. There are discernible flavor differences as well. But those differences are overshadowed by one unifying element: an overwhelming sweetness.

Check the nutrition labels, and you'll see why. These are sugar bombs of the first order.

An 8-ounce serving of Pom? Thirty-four grams of sugar. Whole Foods' 365 Everyday Value: 40 grams. Frutzzo: 32 grams.

By comparison, an 8-ounce serving of Coca-Cola contains 27 grams of sugar; 8 ounces of Mountain Dew, 31 grams.

And just in case you were wondering, a teaspoon of table sugar equals 4.2 grams, so if you were to add 8 teaspoons of sugar to an 8-ounce glass of iced tea, you'd be right at 34 grams.

If your lust for antioxidants demands that you drink pomegranate juice, consider making a spritzer: Mix one part pomegranate juice with three parts seltzer water.