A new study links the colour of fruit and vegetables with a reduction in stroke risk.
Brett Phibbs/NZH
Question: I have heard that apples and pears can help prevent strokes. The usual advice is to eat more coloured fruit, so this piece of news caught my attention. Is it true?
Answer: The new season of apples doesn’t seem to raise as much excitement as the arrival of berries and stone fruit each year. Perhaps we take apples – and pears – for granted because they are so readily available and well priced.
I’m embarrassed to admit I only recently discovered the newer generation of apples. If you’re judging all apples by the likes of the granny smith, you’re missing a treat: the newer varieties – such as jazz, bred and grown in New Zealand, and the French-bred, New Zealand-grown tentation – are extra tasty and crisp. But are apples and pears really a fix for cardiovascular problems?
A number of large studies have found a link between eating a diet rich in fruit and vegetables and having a reduced risk of stroke. And although it has been theorised that specific nutrients in these foods, such as antioxidants, are most likely to be responsible for this effect, clinical trials in which volunteers consumed the antioxidants found in fruits and/or vegetables have failed to find any reduced stroke risk.
In a fresh angle on the same question, Dutch researchers looked at the link between fruit and vegetable colour groups and the risk of stroke. Their findings, published in Stroke, produced some surprising news.
The Dutch 10-year prospective study – which included more than 20,000 adults and documented 233 strokes – revealed that people with the highest intake of white fruits and vegetables had a 52% lower risk of stroke than those with the lowest intake. Each 25g of white fruits or vegetables consumed was associated with a 9% reduction in risk.
Of the white fruits and vegetables in the study, apples and pears were the most commonly consumed. And as the research team pointed out, an apple weighing 120g can make a substantial contribution to someone’s white fruit and vegetable intake. The Dutch findings suggest that what may reduce the risk of stroke is the complex mix of nutrients in whole fruits and vegetables, rather than individual nutrients, according to an accompanying editorial in Stroke. But the study doesn’t prove apples and pears reduce stroke risk – only a clinical trial can verify that claim.
That said, we can certainly enjoy eating apples and pears, as they are high in fibre and contain a powerful flavonoid type of antioxidant called quercetin, which is also found in onions, black and green tea, red wine, green leafy vegetables, beans and citrus fruits.
And although we still have much to learn about the various antioxidants and other health-promoting compounds in apples and pears, what we do know is that storage doesn’t appear to reduce antioxidant levels in apples. In one study, quercetin levels in four apple varieties remained constant even after 52 weeks of controlled-atmosphere storage. Another study found the total volume of phenolic compounds, of which flavonoid antioxidants are a subgroup, remained much the same after 200 days of storage.
However, processing of apples significantly reduces their antioxidant content – when apples are juiced, between 58% and 97% of antioxidant activity is lost. Most antioxidants are found in the skin, so peeling and juicing apples, or indeed just peeling them, causes significant losses. So choose apple juice for its taste rather than its antioxidant content, and take comfort in knowing that those well-priced, out-of-season, cold-stored apples most likely contain a significant quantity of nutrients.
Email: nutrition@listener.co.nz, or write to “Nutrition”, c/o Listener, PO Box 90783, Victoria St West, Auckland 1142.
I recently heard about Lemonade Apples – as a brand – not a taste do you know anything about them and where they can be purchased please? Thanks Ruth
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