The skinny on apples shows some healthier than others

Tuesday, May 24, 2005

By LEE BOWMAN
SCRIPPS HOWARD NEWS SERVICE

Some apples may serve up more health benefits than others, new research indicates.

Canadian researchers analyzing eight popular varieties found that the old standby, Red Delicious, and an apple called Northern Spy contain more disease-fighting antioxidants in their skin and flesh than any other studied.

Red Delicious had more than twice the antioxidant activity as Empires, which had the least activity of the eight.

"Choosing an apple with a high proportion of polyphenols (natural chemicals that cause tissue to contract) in the flesh and skin can potentially produce more health benefits," said Rong Tsao, lead author of the study appearing in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry on June 29, and published online last week. "But eating any apple is better than eating no apple at all."

Tsao, a researcher at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in Guelph, Ontario, and colleagues at the government agency also pinpointed the individual compounds most responsible for antioxidant activity in apples. Their findings could lead to breeding of hybrid apples that pack an even more potent punch.

Researchers have known for some time that apples are a good source of antioxidants, chemicals that neutralize unstable molecules in cells. These molecules, called free radicals, are thought to play a role in development of heart disease and prostate, colon and other cancers.

Polyphenyls are a major source of antioxidants in apples, but researchers have not been sure just which of these chemicals are most active. Another researcher, Riu Hai Liu of Cornell University, has found that eating 100 grams of apple provides the same amount of antioxidant activity as taking 1,500 milligrams of vitamin C, but that vitamin is present in apples in only small amounts.

Tsao and his team used three laboratory measures to evaluate polyphenol activity in apples that are popular in Canada -- Red Delicious, McIntosh, Cortland, Northern Spy, Ida Red, Golden Delicious, Mutsu and Empire. All the apples used in the study were grown on the same Ontario farm.

The researchers found that polyphenols were five times more prevalent in the skin than the flesh of the apples.

Northern Spy had a little less of the compounds in its skin than Red Delicious, but about twice as much in the flesh of the fruit than Red D.

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