The advice to eat “an apple a day” got a huge boost thanks to a study whose healthy results even shocked the lead investigator. For this study, 160 middle age to older women were randomly assigned to eat either 75 grams of dried apples a day or 75 grams of prunes a day for a period of 1 year.
After 6 months, the apple eating group experienced a 23 % drop in their LDL (bad) cholesterol levels, a 4% increase in their HDL (good) cholesterol levels, and a reduction in their C-reactive protein levels (a measure of excess inflammation). Yet another very positive outcome was weight loss. The apple eaters lost an average of 3.3 lbs. over the 1 year study period. (Experimental Biology Meeting, Washington, DC April 12, 2011)
The daily dose of apples consumed in this study was equivalent to 2 fresh apples or about ¾ cups of dried apples. Dried apples will definitely be added to my superstar list of cholesterol-lowering foods:
