According to recent study, eating two apples a day may help to lower cholesterol levels and reduce the risk of heart disease by reducing inflammation.
Using data from the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, a team of scientists led by the University of Reading in collaboration with the Fondazione Edmund Mach Institute in Italy discovered that eating apples, which are high in fiber and compounds known as polyphenols, reduced the amount of total LDL cholesterol in participants who had slightly elevated blood cholesterol levels, as well as improved markers associated with blood vessel health.
The apples utilized in the study were Renetta Canada apples cultivated in Trentino, Italy, which are high in a kind of polyphenol component known as proanthocyanin's, according to the researchers (PAs). As a comparison, an apple juice squash with equal calories and sugar content to the apples was used as a control. It was discovered that the apples utilised had much greater quantities of fibre (8.5 grammes vs 0.5 grammes, respectively) and total polyphenol content (990mg vs 2.5mg, respectively).
The researchers conducted a randomised controlled experiment on 40 men and women ranging in age from 29 to 69 who had moderately elevated cholesterol levels. Pre-intervention, volunteers were required to follow their usual diet for two weeks but were not allowed to consume any probiotics (e.g., live yoghurt, fermented milk drinks), prebiotics (such as inulin and fructooligosaccharide), or any apple products (including juice and foods containing apples) before the dietary intervention could begin. During the actual 20-week trial period, subjects were instructed to refrain from consuming any probiotics, prebiotics, or other apple products (apart from the provided items).
One group had two apples each day for eight weeks, followed by a four-week washout period before consuming 500 mL of a sugar-matched apple squash every day for another eight weeks after that. The intervention meals were administered to the other group in the opposite sequence. Volunteers were asked to include the intervention goods into their usual habitual diet and to acknowledge that both products had the potential to be beneficial to their health and wellbeing. It was clearly stated that the apple peel and meat should be eaten, but that the apple core should not be consumed.
The researchers found that eating two apples per day might assist to minimise the risk of cardiovascular disease by 4 percent if done regularly.
It seems from the results of this current research that the influence of an easily implemented dietary adjustment may have a significant impact on key indicators of heart disease risk. The fact that the two whole apples, rather than a sugar and calorie matched apple juice drink, had a substantial impact on indicators of heart health in the individuals is of special relevance in this research. "It seems that the old saying about an apple a day was almost correct."
This was also stated by Dr Thanasis Koutsos from the University of Reading's Food and Nutritional Sciences Department, who was responsible for the research.
In the meantime, we do not know whether the findings are due to the fibre contained in apples or the polyphenol discovered in considerably higher concentrations in the apples that we utilised." In any case, the complete dish is unquestionably the winner here."
In people with moderate hypercholesterolemia, two apples per day are associated with decreased blood cholesterol and improved cardiometabolic biomarkers, according to a randomised, controlled crossover research.
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