Can Pomegranate Increase Blood?

What a Published Study Made Me Finally Believe

I had heard this claim so many times that it started to feel like a folk tale. Eat pomegranate for your blood. If you have anemia, drink pomegranate juice. My mother said. Grandma said. The same thing was written in half of the health forums I saw. And every time I heard that, I would nod my head, put it in the same mental folder I kept for all the well-intentioned food advice circulating in our community, without anyone checking to see if it was actually true. When I finally took good care of him, I expected that I would get very little can pomegranate increase blood, which is one of the nice claims that has been scientifically studied.

What I found stopped me scrolling. A peer-reviewed clinical trial published in a medical journal indexed in PubMed actually tested this. Real exhibitors. Controlled Conditions. Blood samples were taken before and after. And the results were specific, statistically significant, and frankly, more impressive than I expected. can pomegranate increase blood  — in terms of red blood cells, hemoglobin, and hematocrit — the answer is yes, as evidenced by real data. Here’s everything I’ve learned, why it works, and what it means for just about anyone looking to support their blood health through food.

Why I Was Sceptical About This Claim for So Long

Pomegranate is one of those fruits that gets recommended for everything. Heart health. Skin. Memory. Gut health. Cancer prevention. Blood building. At a certain point, when a single food appears in the solution column for every problem, scepticism is the rational response.

I had also spent enough time reading health content to recognise the pattern: a claim circulates widely, often rooted in traditional or cultural knowledge, and gets repeated with enough confidence that it eventually feels like established fact. Nobody cites a source. Nobody explains the mechanism. It is just accepted that pomegranate is good for your blood the same way it is accepted that carrots are good for your eyes — true enough in a broad sense, but rarely interrogated precisely.

I wanted to know the precise truth. Not “pomegranate is nutritious and nutrition supports blood health.” I wanted to know whether eating pomegranate produces a measurable, documented change in the blood markers that matter — haemoglobin, red blood cell count, and haematocrit. And whether that change has been observed in an actual study with actual humans, not just inferred from nutrient composition.

What “Increase Blood” Actually Means — And Why the Distinction Matters

The Three Things People Usually Mean

When someone says pomegranate “increases blood,” they are usually referring to one of three measurable parameters — all of which appear in a standard Complete Blood Count (CBC) test:

• Haemoglobin levels — the iron-containing protein inside red blood cells that carries oxygen around your body. Low haemoglobin is the defining feature of most forms of anaemia.
• Red blood cell count (RBC) — the actual number of red blood cells circulating per microlitre of blood. Too few means insufficient oxygen delivery to tissues.
• Haematocrit — the percentage of your total blood volume made up of red blood cells. A low haematocrit typically indicates anaemia or blood loss.

All three are measured together in a CBC test — the most common blood test in clinical medicine. When all three are low, the diagnosis is usually iron-deficiency anaemia, which the World Health Organisation estimates affects approximately 30% of the global population, making it the single most common nutritional deficiency on earth.

What Commonly Causes Low Blood Counts

Understanding the cause matters when evaluating whether a dietary intervention like pomegranate could help:

• Iron deficiency — the body cannot produce enough haemoglobin without adequate iron. Most common in women of reproductive age and children.
• Vitamin B12 or folate deficiency — both essential for red blood cell production in the bone marrow. Deficiency causes megaloblastic anaemia.
• Chronic disease or inflammation — ongoing inflammatory conditions suppress erythropoiesis, the process of making new red blood cells.
• Blood loss — heavy menstrual periods, internal bleeding, or surgical recovery can deplete red blood cells faster than the body replaces them.

The type of anaemia matters because it determines which nutritional interventions are relevant. Pomegranate’s profile — vitamin C, folate, iron, and antioxidants — makes it most directly applicable to nutritional anaemia rather than disease-driven causes.

Can Pomegranate Increase Blood? The Clinical Evidence That Changed My Mind

Here is the study I found. I want to walk through it carefully, because the details matter — both the findings and the limitations.

The Study — Published in Experimental and Therapeutic Medicine

Manthou et al. (2017), published in Experimental and Therapeutic Medicine and indexed on PubMed Central (PMC5526177), set out to examine the effects of pomegranate juice supplementation on a full complete blood count alongside glucose, blood lipids, and CRP in healthy subjects.

Ten participants — five male, five female, average age 31.8 years — were randomised to consume 500ml of pomegranate juice per day or no juice for 14 days. Blood samples were taken before and after. The results were specific and statistically significant:

• Red blood cell count: significant increase (p < 0.05)
• Haemoglobin levels: significant increase (p < 0.001) — the strongest statistical result in the entire study
• Haematocrit levels: significant increase (p < 0.05)

And here is what makes the findings even more credible: glucose, cholesterol, triglycerides, LDL, HDL, and CRP did not significantly change. The effect was not a general nutritional lift. It was specific to red blood cell parameters — which is exactly what you would expect if the mechanism were genuinely related to iron metabolism and erythropoiesis rather than confounding factors.

The researchers concluded that pomegranate juice intake for a short period may result in increased erythropoiesis — the production of new red blood cells — or decreased RBC degradation, or both. In 14 days. That is not a trivial finding.

I want to be honest about the limitations, because I think that matters more than presenting a clean story. This was a small study — ten participants. It was conducted in healthy individuals, not in people with diagnosed anaemia. Larger, more diverse trials, particularly in iron-deficient populations, are still needed. But the specificity of the blood findings and the strength of the haemoglobin result at p < 0.001 gave me more confidence than I had expected to feel.

The Supporting Research — Iron Bioavailability

A 2024 review published in Food Reviews International examined pomegranate juice as a promising therapeutic agent specifically for iron-deficiency anaemia. The researchers pointed to its bioactive compounds — anthocyanins, ellagic tannins, and ellagic acid — as key contributors to its therapeutic potential.

A separately published study by Balasubramani et al. found that pomegranate juice actively enhances iron dialysability and cellular iron uptake — meaning it does not simply provide iron, it improves the efficiency with which your gut absorbs iron from everything you eat alongside it. The effect is not solely due to ascorbic acid (vitamin C). Other organic acids, sugars, and polyphenols in pomegranate juice appear to contribute to iron bioavailability through additional mechanisms. This makes the fruit’s blood effect more robust than a simple vitamin C story.

Why Pomegranate Has This Effect — The Biology Behind the Numbers

Understanding the mechanisms made the study results feel far less surprising. Once I traced the biology, the outcome made complete sense.

Vitamin C — The Iron Absorption Amplifier

Pomegranate is a meaningful source of vitamin C (ascorbic acid), and vitamin C is the most potent dietary enhancer of non-haem iron absorption available. It works by converting ferric iron (Fe³⁺) — the form found in plant foods — into ferrous iron (Fe²⁺), which is the form the gut can actually absorb efficiently. Research suggests vitamin C can increase non-haem iron absorption by up to 67% when consumed in the same meal.

The practical implication is significant: eating pomegranate arils with a meal that includes lentils, spinach, beans, or tofu turns the fruit into an iron absorption system for your whole plate — not just a small contributor of iron itself. This is why it is often more valuable to eat pomegranate with iron-rich food than to eat it alone.

Antioxidants — Protecting the Red Blood Cells You Already Have

The punicalagins, anthocyanins, and ellagic acid in pomegranate are some of the most potent antioxidants found in any commonly consumed fruit. Research has shown that pomegranate juice has three times the antioxidant activity of red wine and green tea. In the context of blood health, this matters because oxidative stress accelerates red blood cell degradation — your body loses RBCs faster than it produces them.

By reducing oxidative damage to red blood cells, pomegranate may slow the destruction side of the equation. This is likely one of the mechanisms the Manthou researchers identified — decreased RBC degradation — as a possible explanation for the increased haematocrit and cell count they observed after just two weeks.

Folate — The Overlooked Blood-Building Nutrient

Pomegranate contains folate — a B vitamin essential for DNA synthesis in the bone marrow, including the synthesis of new red blood cells. Folate deficiency is the second most common nutritional cause of anaemia after iron deficiency, yet it is far less discussed in the context of dietary blood support.

The combination of all three mechanisms — vitamin C amplifying iron absorption from your whole diet, antioxidants protecting existing red blood cells from premature destruction, and folate supporting the bone marrow production of new cells — is what makes pomegranate’s effect on blood health multi-layered and more clinically plausible than a single nutrient story would suggest.

What Pomegranate Cannot Do — The Honest Limits

This section is important to me, because I think health content that only tells people what they want to hear is ultimately harmful. So let me be straight.

Pomegranate contains only modest amounts of iron — approximately 0.3mg per 100g of arils. That is not enough to correct a significant iron-deficiency anaemia on its own. Its real power is in absorption enhancement and red blood cell protection — it multiplies the value of the iron you get from everything else you eat, and it slows the degradation of blood cells already in your system.

If you have been told your haemoglobin is significantly below normal, you need a proper medical evaluation. You may need iron supplementation, vitamin B12 injections, or investigation into why your body is losing or not producing blood cells adequately. Pomegranate is a tool within a broader nutritional strategy — not a substitute for clinical care.

💡 Think of it this way:

Pomegranate is a blood-health multiplier, not a blood-health solution. It amplifies the iron you absorb from your whole diet, protects the red blood cells you already have from oxidative damage, and supports the bone marrow machinery that produces new ones. That is a meaningful, multi-layered contribution — but it needs the rest of your diet and, where necessary, medical treatment to do the heavy lifting.

Practical Foods That Work Against Pomegranate’s Blood Benefits

Something I discovered while researching this — and that almost no article mentions — is that certain common foods actively inhibit iron absorption and can undercut pomegranate’s benefit if eaten at the same time.

• Tea and coffee — the tannins and polyphenols in both bind to iron and reduce absorption significantly
• Dairy products — calcium competes with iron for absorption at the intestinal wall
• Dark chocolate — contains oxalates that bind to iron
• Alcohol — disrupts iron metabolism and increases oxidative stress on red blood cells

The practical advice: leave at least 30 minutes between pomegranate and these foods to avoid cancelling out the absorption benefit. Eat pomegranate with your iron-rich meal, not with your morning tea or evening coffee.

How I Now Use Pomegranate as Part of My Blood-Health Routine

Once I understood the mechanisms, I stopped eating pomegranate randomly and started eating it with purpose. The changes were small but they made sense.

I add 80 to 100 grams of arils to lunch most days — specifically on days when I am having lentil soup, a spinach salad, or a bean-based dish. The vitamin C goes to work on the iron in those foods immediately. On days I want a more concentrated polyphenol dose, I have 100 to 150ml of natural, unsweetened pomegranate juice with my main meal — never the commercial versions loaded with added sugar, which dilute the therapeutic value.

I avoid eating pomegranate with my tea or coffee. This was the hardest habit to break, because I used to have it as a mid-morning snack alongside a cup of tea without thinking. Once I understood that tea’s tannins actively inhibit the iron absorption that pomegranate is trying to enhance, I shifted the timing.

And I continue having blood tests at my GP’s recommendation. Pomegranate is part of my nutritional approach to blood health — it is not a reason to skip monitoring. The goal is to bring genuinely good food into a broader strategy, not to substitute a fruit for a doctor.

For broader context on how pomegranate fits into blood health — including its effect on platelets specifically — pomegranate also has a documented effect on platelet levels that is worth understanding separately, particularly if low platelet count is part of your concern.

And if you are wondering about daily use more generally, if you are wondering whether eating pomegranate daily could affect your weight, the answer is reassuring — at 83 calories per 100g, it fits easily into any calorie-aware diet.

One practical note for those new to larger portions: larger therapeutic amounts can sometimes cause digestive discomfort worth being aware of — starting with a smaller portion and building up over a week avoids this for most people.

On the timing front, I also looked into whether eating pomegranate at night affects its benefits — eating it with an evening meal is fine, though pairing it with iron-rich food matters more than the clock.

My Honest Final Answer

After so much doubt, research and study, I am going here.

The claim that my mother, grandmother, and all South Asian health forums have been circulating for decades is better established than I expected. Can pomegranate increase blood sugar — especially red blood cell counts, hemoglobin levels, and hematocrit — based on peer-reviewed clinical evidence, the answer is yes. After consuming pomegranate juice daily for just 14 days, there was a statistically significant increase in all three parameters. These mechanisms—vitamin C, which boosts iron absorption, antioxidants that protect red blood cells, and folate that supports bone marrow production—are all biologically reliable and individually well-established.

What it can’t do: Switch iron supplements to clinical anaemia, self-correct severe deficiency, or  override a GP diagnosis if your haemoglobin is significantly lower than normal. Pomegranate is not a cure. It is truly an impressive diet that supports healthy blood production and maintenance conditions in sync with your overall diet.

Now I eat it differently — more thoughtfully, with better timing, in addition to the foods it grows. And I have more respect for traditional wisdom that hinted at something real from the start.

Frequently Asked Questions

⚕️ Medical Disclaimer

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. If you suspect anaemia or have been told your blood count is low, please consult a qualified GP or haematologist before making dietary changes intended to address your blood health.

Faizan Ahmed

“I am a health content writer who started this journey the same way many readers arrive here — searching for clear, honest answers at the wrong hour, and finding content that was either too complicated or too vague to help. Pure Vitality Tips was built out of that experience. Every article published here is researched first — drawing from peer-reviewed studies, WHO, CDC, NHS, NIH, and leading clinical journals. I am not a doctor, but I take the responsibility of writing about health seriously — because I know first-hand how much accurate information matters.”