Health experts have said there’s a fruit which can have a huge impact on blood pressure. Apples are rich in flavonoids — antioxidant plant compounds known to help to keep blood pressure under healthy control.
And research has shown that if people eat the skins there are even bigger health benefits. Dietician Dr Linia Patels said: “Flavonoids relax the walls of blood vessels helping to reduce blood pressure. All fruits and vegetables provide them, but apples and pears are definitely good sources.”
According to Professor Aedin Cassidy, a researcher in the school of biological sciences at Queen’s University in Belfast, these flavonoids boost gut health, which has benefits for blood pressure. In a study of 904 people published in Hypertension, Cassidy found that those who ate the most flavonoid-rich foods had a greater diversity of gut bacteria, which has been shown to enhance the cardio-protective effects of the antioxidant compounds.
Nutritional scientist Tim Spector has said that apple skins contain a high concentration of polyphenols – a compound which can assist in reducing inflammation in the body – potentially helping avoid dementia, arthritis and diabetes.
Prof Spector has previously advocated people not peeling vegetables and fruit as the skin contains much greater quantities of polyphenols. “Here’s a tip to help you get more nutrition from your food. I often talk about the benefits of polyphenols, for your health and particularly for promoting the growth of beneficial gut bacteria.
“Polyphenols are defence chemicals so are most abundant in the skin of plants where they are needed to protect against the elements and predators. In apples, there may be around 30 times more polyphenols in the skin than the flesh.”
The professor added: “As well as polyphenols, peels are often the most fibre and prebiotic rich part of the plant. Keeping the skin on your potatoes means you’ll be getting around 50% more fibre and 175% more vitamin C than if you were to peel it and eating a kiwi with the skin on triples the amount of fibre you’ll consume.”
Dr Rupy Aujla who is a practicing NHS GP in London runs the Doctor’s Kitchen podcast said that type 2 diabetes which is influenced by people’s diets and lifestyles is on the increase but this could be staved off through eating flavonoid-rich foods including apples, tea, berries, grapes, oranges, grapefruit, sweet peppers, onions, and dark chocolate.
Dr Aujla said: “Flavonoid intake may reduce weight gain by increasing satiety and energy metabolism. They have also been shown to reduce inflammation and oxidative stress, as well as help regulate insulin-responsive glucose transporters. The amount of variety that the number of flavonoid rich ingredients you can get into a diet can correspond to a lower risk of type two diabetes. And the reason why I can say that is because there was a recent cohort study of over 100,000 middle aged adults. This was published in nutrition and diabetes, and they found that an average of just six servings of flavonoid rich foods per day, So six servings not of the same berry, but actually a mixture of all these different colourful ingredients. So it could be red onions, red cabbage Berries, apples was associated with a 26% lower risk of Type two diabetes.”