If you do one thing this week...consider an apple smoothie

An apple a day keeps the doctor away, and a smoothie may offer a good way of delivering the fruit's beneficial plant compounds to your large intestine, according to a recent study in the journal Molecular Nutrition & Food Research.

In particular, the project looked at polyphenols, compounds found in apples that have excited interest in the lab and may be linked with anti-cancer activity.

Researchers asked 10 people who had ileostomy collection bags to drink apple smoothies, then analysed levels of the plant compounds that went into the bags on the basis that it reflected what would be moving into the colon.

The level of polyphenols that reached the bags were “considerably higher” after the participants drank apple smoothies than after drinking cloudy apple juice or cider, the researchers concluded.