After taking good resolutions for the sporting season, why not extend your efforts on food? And even more if it positively impacts your microbiota, like apple!
The apple, fruit with many virtues continues to impress us! Refreshing, low calorie and delicious, the apple shows us once again it can be a good friend for our health.
Real reservoir of beneficial components (antioxidants, polyphenols, vitamins…), this acidulous fruit is also rich in prebiotics.
And more amazing thing, in probiotics! This is shown in an Austrian study.
The apple, source of probiotics …
According to a recent study, apples are a great source of bacteria. The author named Birgit Wassermann is a PhD student at Graz University of Technology in Austria. She explains that an apple would contain one hundred million bacteria. Contrary to what one might think, it is not in the skin where the number of bacteria is the highest. They are rather concentrated in the pulp and seeds. Indeed, the skin would be ten times less concentrated than the pulp.
Another discovery, the composition between apples from conventional agriculture and those from organic farming differ. Although in terms of quantity, the values are similar, from the diversity side, it is another story: organic apples have greater bacterial diversity. The researcher explains us this difference by this hypothesis: conventional apples have less bacterial diversity, probably due to products like pesticides making the soil less rich. Bacteria come from the soil, and if it is affected, the fruits will also be affected.
In addition, organic apple bacteria would be more qualitative. Indeed, they would contain beneficial bacteria while conventional apples would carry more harmful bacteria, such as Enterobacterialis responsible for gastroenteritis. Knowing that bacteria, fungi and viruses in our food colonize transitorily our intestines, as they are of good quality!
…and prebiotics
Do not forget that apple contains pectin, a soluble fiber found in the skin but also pips. Pectin is known to have prebiotic benefits. In fact, it increases the level of a short chain fatty acid, butyrate, which nourishes the good bacteria of our intestinal microbiota and therefore allows their growth. In addition, it also helps to limit the population of harmful bacteria.
Apples, especially if they are organic, are fruits to consume without moderation!
LC
