Fruit Juice May Prevent Heart Disease Better Than Whole Fruit, Study Suggests

Note from Connie: I’m wary of this new research, which suggests that apple and purple grape juice may do a better job of fighting atherosclerosis than these fruits in their solid form. Jennifer Moore brings you the details.

According to a new study, published in the journal Molecular Nutrition and Food Research, a French research team at Universite Montpellier fed hamsters a fatty, high-cholesterol diet for 12 weeks, thus building up the plaque in their blood vessels, then gave them either apples, grapes, apple juice, or grape juice. A control group of hamsters received water.

Results showed that the purple grape juice was most effective in reducing cholesterol and fatty deposits in the hamsters’ aortas, followed by purple grapes, then apple juice, and then solid apple.

Let’s hope that people don’t take this research as a license to load up on sugary, store-bought juice, but instead just use their juicers at home to make fruit juice (without adding sugar, of course!).

Thanks to Reuters Health for the tip.

Jennifer Moore for SUGAR SHOCK! Blog