January 29/NewsRx Health & Science -- Why does an apple a day keep the doctor away? New research published in the open-access journal BMC Microbiology contributes to the understanding of why eating apples is healthy.
Microbiologists from the National Food Institute at the University of Denmark fed rats a diet rich in whole apples, apple juice, puree or pomace, or put them on a control diet. They then analyzed the microbial content of the rats' digestive systems to see if eating apples had any impact on the numbers of presumed "friendly" bacteria in the gut.