Apples could be new antioxidant superfood

The health benefits of apples and apple juice are comparable to purple grapes and grape juice, according to data published in the April 2008 issue of Molecular Nutrition and Food Research.

Led by Kelly Decorde from the Universite Montpellier in France, a European research team found that apples have similar cardiovascular protective properties to grapes and said that processing the fruit into juice has the potential to increase the bioavailability of the naturally-occurring compounds and antioxidants found in the whole fruit. Using a variety of established analytical techniques, aortic plaque was evaluated to determine the effectiveness in decreasing plaque that is associated with atherosclerosis. The study found that processing apples and purple grapes into juice modifies the protective effect of their phenolics against diet-induced oxidative stress and early atherosclerosis in hypercholesterolemic hamsters.