Is the pomegranate the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde of sex?
Pomegranates could be called a “passion fruit,” except when it’s recalled for Hepatitis A.
(1 minute read)
Just when you thought it was safe to eat the pomegranate
Recently, Zoomer magazine (see earlier blog) highlighted a group of five foods that could feed your sex drive (walnuts, bananas, peppers, avocados and pomegranates). Since then, pomegranate sales are not the only thing on the rise. The pomegranate is high in antioxidants, which protect the lining of blood vessels and allows more blood to course through them; thereby, providing increased genital sensitivity and higher blood flow. As your doctor might advise, “Forget the Viagra, get pomegranates in your food diet and your sexual diet will improve.” But is it a Dr. Jekyll remedy?
Is the pomegranate also a Mr. Hyde? In June 2013, frozen berries sold by US retailer Costco, called, “Townsend Farms Organic Antioxidant Blend” berry and pomegranate mix, were purchased by around 240,000 people and subject to a recall, after at least 118 people were infected with Hepatitis A. And now, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has announced a recall of “Woodstock Frozen Organic Pomegranate Kernels” for Hepatitis A (click for specific product and regional information).
Zoomers expect warnings about the side effects from Viagra and Cialis, but healthy, good-for-the-libido food like pomegranates … geez, what’s a healthy and sexually active person supposed to eat? Maybe Oprah will do a show on it – as a time filler on OWN – with Dr. Oz, Dr. Phil and Dr. Jekyll.
In the meantime, in fact, all the time, be alert about the pomegranate and everything you eat. Sign up for food health alerts at STOP Foodborne Illness (they cover Canada too).
“People are the worst”
Coming 2026
My personal history is the stuff they write books about. And that's what I am doing. The working title, "Chains of My Father: Marry White."
"The ghostly image of the tragic mulatto trapped between two worlds." - Barack Obama
This perspicacious line from the Prologue of Barack Obama's "Dream from My Father" wrenched my aspiration into action. I started writing, furiously. Unlike Obama's perspective, my pain had been for the opposite reason: I was not seen by whites as a "tragic mulatto," rather I lived every day of my childhood hoping whites were not "searching my eyes for some telltale sign" that I WAS mulatto. This is my story.
It's historical fiction because I cannot find enough records to substantiate all facets of the story. I've combed the genealogy, traveled to my father and grandmothers' birthplace, walked the graveyards, searched the churches and ... well, all the facts aren't there. I have written three books based on the genealogy of other families but my ancestors emerged from a journey that left too few records – slavery.
My paternal, great grandmother was a "freed slave." My grandmother, Amelia, was born to a mixed race slave named Mary (we do not know her last name) and a white, French plantation owner, the Count de Poullain, in Grenada, West Indies. Amelia was raised in the "Big House" and in adulthood, in an attempt to escape her black heritage disowned her mother, telling her, "Get out and never come back." Amelia, as a mother of twelve children, enshrined into the family commandments, "Marry white." Many did, including my father. My mother was a lovely, white, Anglo-Saxon protestant born in England. They met in Canada where my dad studied and became a doctor.
It has taken five generations for the descendants of Mary to free themselves from the stigma of their black heritage but today my children embrace it. Unfortunately, the past 250 years have been a wasteland of bigotry, racism and bullying. But, on closer look, we see not only the brutality, fear, violence, and murder but also the self-respect, dignity, love, kindness, perseverance and indomitable spirit.
As of the spring of 2025, the depth of historic perspective and the sweeping inspiration of oppressed people has created a two-volume duology of which I have only arrived at the middle of the 19th century. 1840 is the year my great grandfather was born, the beginning of Volume II, and he's pushing me to make sure our story is published by the summer of 2026.
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