Monday, January 15, 2007

Cloudy vs. clear

I'm talking about juice. Apparently a new study has determined that cloudy apple (or strawberry) juices are far better than their clear counterparts when it comes to fighting heart disease and cancer:
Polish scientists found the levels of antioxidants which protect against heart disease and cancer are almost double in cloudy apple juice.

The antioxidants, called polyphenols, are also found in red wine, berries and dark chocolate.

In the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, the researchers said the manufacturing process led to fewer polyphenols in clear apple juice.
[...]
But overall cloudy apple juice, which contains more pulp, was found to have higher concentrations of antioxidants and showed more antioxidant activity in experiments.
[...]
"Health benefits are expected mainly in the case of cloudy apple juice consumption."
[...]
Previous research has shown that polyphenols contained in fruit and vegetables help to protect against diseases such as cancer, by mopping up free radicals which can cause damage to cells.

Apples themselves contain a wide variety of polyphenols but when processed into apple juice some of these may be lost.

The manufacturing process used to make clear apple juice, which include using an enzyme to break down the pectin in apple cell walls and spinning to remove pulp, considerably decreases the levels of polyphenols in the end product, Dr Oszmianski explained.
Quite self evident. Cloudy juices have been filtered (read, processed) less then clear ones, so, as with any other food, are more wholesome and natural than their counterparts.

Probably as close to the original product as you can get when you opt for juice instead of the actual fruit.

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