Apple Juice May Help Promote Healthy Weight

Cloudy apple juice, juice in which the apple pectin and starch are retained, is rich in polyphenols, compounds that have been shown in previous studies to exert a variety of health effects.  Stephan W. Barth, from the Max Rubner Institut (Germany), and colleagues enrolled 68 obese, non-diabetic men, to receive either 750 mL of cloudy apple juice daily, or a control beverage, for four weeks.  The men who consumed the cloudy apple juice displayed 1% reduction in total body fat  (as compared to 0.2% in the control group). Further, the researchers observed that those men with a specific gene polymorphism (IL6-174 G showed a 2% reduction in total body fat after 4 weeks of cloudy apple juice.  The study authors submit that: “The observed diet–gene interaction might be a first indication for the impact of individual genetic background on [cloudy apple juice]-mediated bioactivity on obesity-associated comorbidities.”