Kiwi Enhances Bowel Health

With its characteristic fuzzy brown exterior and bright green flesh speckled with black seeds, kiwifruit (Chinese gooseberry) is an abundant source of vitamin C. Researchers from The New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research Limited (New Zealand) enrolled 19 healthy and functionally constipated men and women, who were randomly assigned to receive either a supplement derived from kiwifruit (Actanidia deliciosa kiwifruit 600 mg or 2400 mg/day; or Actanidia chinensis [Gold] kiwifruit 2400 mg/day), or placebo, for 28 days.  As a cross-over study, each intervention was followed by 14 days of no intervention, then the subjects crossed over to another intervention. All three kiwifruit interventions significantly increased daily bowel movements, without adverse effects on stool form, among the healthy participants. The study authors report that: “This study demonstrated that [kiwifruit-derived supplements] produced clinically meaningful increases in bowel movements in healthy individuals.”