Organic apples have probiotic properties

"An apple a day …" says the old proverb. It seems that everyone agrees, judging by the number 1 position of apples around the world: 83 million apples are produced each year.

A new study shows that eating an apple, its heart and everything, is equivalent to eating not only fiber, vitamins and sugars, but also about 100 million bacteria. On the other hand, throwing out the kernel reduces that number to 10 million. Eating a complete organic apple provides a variety of healthy bacteria that enhance flavor and provide health benefits to the body.

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The gut microbiota, including bacteria, viruses and fungi, comes in part from food. Foodborne microbes colonize the intestine briefly, but only if the fruits and vegetables are not cooked. That's why these foods are best eaten raw. The researchers badyzed the microbiota of the apple to determine which of these helped the body the most.

They examined organic and store bought "Arlet" apples of equal freshness. The badysis was performed separately for the stem, skin, flesh, seeds and calyx. Each of these had a distinct bacterial profile. They then compared their results in both categories.

It is interesting to note that organic and farmed apples had the same number of bacteria, averaging about 100 million bacteria on a 240 g apple. Most of them are found in the stem and seeds of the apple core. The flesh is about $ 10 million.

The skin contained the lowest number among all the tissues but, with the pulp, exhibited the largest number of species. It should be noted that conventional apples have about half the number of seeds compared to organic apples.

Most bacteria belong to genera like proteobacteria (80%) and Bacteroides (9%), with smaller but significant contributions from actinobacteria and Firmicutes. Although the total number of bacteria was similar in both categories, four out of ten bacterial genus types showed significant variation.

The difference comes from the diversity of bacteria present in organic apples at the time of harvest. These showed a more uniform distribution, a greater number of species and a balanced community of bacterial species. Ingested microbes also contribute to the open bacterial ecosystem of the intestine, which is connected to bacterial species on the outside.

There were 50 genera found only in conventional apples and 16 genera found only in organic apples. This included groups of bacteria known to be harmful to health, such as Shigella Escherichia which causes several gastrointestinal infections.

These occur in the majority of conventionally grown apples, but not in organic apples. However, the latter showed a number of lactobacilli which were visibly absent from conventional apples.

Lead researcher Gabriele Berg explains, "This variety and balance should limit the proliferation of a particular species, and previous studies have found a negative correlation between the abundance of human pathogens and the diversity fresh products in the microbiome ".

In addition to the growth pattern, plant microbiomes also vary depending on the genome of the plant, the part of the plant ingested, the type and quality of the soil, as well as other biotic / abiotic factors.

These bacteria are not only healthier, but they even contribute to a better taste:

Methylobacterium, known to enhance the biosynthesis of strawberry flavoring compounds, was significantly more abundant in organic apples; here especially on the skin and flesh samples, which generally had a more varied microbiota than the seeds, stem or calyx. "

Gabriele Berg, lead author

Another study revealed essentially the same kind of results regarding mushrooms on apples. The fungal strains badociated with the apple were quite specific for different tissue types and different agricultural philosophies.

This means that organic apples have a greater variety of healthy bacteria and fungi. However, further work is needed to determine which bacterial strains are most abundant in different apple cultivars, as different species of fungi have been found specific to different varieties.

The next step is to find the correlation between the diversity of microbial input resulting from the diversity of food and intestinal microbiota and, consequently, better health outcomes.

Wbaderman predicts that "microbiome and antioxidant profiles of fresh produce may one day become standard nutrition information, displayed alongside macronutrients, vitamins and minerals to guide consumers."