Canadian researchers have found that some varieties of apples have better disease-fighting properties than others. The researchers analyzed around eight popular varieties of the fruit and found that Red Delicious, Northern Spy and Ida Red have got more anti-oxidants in them than the other varieties.
Researchers from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in Guelph, Ontario, have also isolated individual chemical compounds responsible for antioxidant activity in apples. These findings are significant as they could herald in a new era in apple cultivation. "Redder apples are generally richer in antioxidants than pale coloured apples. These are the compounds that are known to fight with the so-called free radicals in our body. The free radicals are the culprits of modern human chronic diseases," Dr. Tsao, the team leader, said.
The major source of antioxidants in apples happens to be phytochemicals called polyphenols. These happen to be found in plenty on the skin of the apples and researchers say that you should now put away your peelers and eat the whole apple in order to derive the maximum nutritious benefit from the same. "When taste and texture do not matter, choosing an apple with a high proportion of polyphenols in the flesh and skin can potentially produce more health benefits. But eating any apple is better than eating no apple at all," Dr Tsao, stresses.
Other important findings include,
* Polyphenols, the antioxidant bearing chemicals, were five times more prevalent in the skin than the flesh of the apples.
* Two polyphenols, epicatechin and procyanidin B2, were the greatest contributors to total antioxidant activity of the apples.
* Red Delicious apples had two times more antioxidant activity than Empire apples, which had the least activity of any of the apples studied.
Further details of this study can be found in the latest issue of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.
Meanwhile, three other studies conducted at the Cornell University in New York have linked the antioxidant properties in apples to prevention of heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease and breast cancer.
