According to a new study, women who eat dried apples every day for a year have a persistent decrease in cholesterol.
For comparison, in women who ate prunes daily for a year, their cholesterol levels remained unchanged, which suggests that these fruits inhibit cholesterol growth.
"Apples are a pretty powerful way to fight high cholesterol," said Bahram Arjmandi, lead author of the study and chairman of the Department of Nutrition, Food, and Exercise Sciences at Florida State University.
Arzhmandi and his colleagues asked 45 women to eat 75 grams (about two slices) of dried apples every day for a year.
For comparison, 55 women ate 100 grams of prune per day for a year.
At the beginning of the study, after three, six and 12 months, the women had a blood test to measure cholesterol.
All women were in postmenopausal women, a period that is usually associated with rising cholesterol levels. At the beginning of the study, the average level was below 200 milligrams per deciliter of blood - a threshold above which there is a risk of heart attack and stroke.
Three months later, those who ate prunes did not see a difference in cholesterol levels. Their cholesterol remained unchanged throughout the 12 months of the study.
Among those who ate dried apples, the level of total cholesterol decreased by 9%, and the level of low-density lipoprotein, LDL ("bad" cholesterol) fell by 16%.
Six months later, the level of total cholesterol among apple lovers fell even lower - by 13% compared with the start of the study, and LDL levels decreased by 24%.
After 12 months, blood cholesterol levels remained low.
"To what extent apples can lower the level of bad cholesterol is beyond my own imagination. Such a powerful tool," said Arzhmandi.
