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Indian Express
03-05-2025
- Health
- Indian Express
Red vs Green: Which apple is better for gut health?
The popular adage, 'an apple a day keeps the doctor away,' reflects the numerous health benefits associated with this humble fruit. An excellent source of essential nutrients and fibre, apples help support digestive health in multiple ways. But between the two kinds of apples widely available in the market – red and green — which one is better for gut health? Let's find out. According to Deepalaksmi, registered dietitian at Shree Balaji Medical Center, Chennai, the key differences lie in their sugar content, antioxidant levels, and the types of fibre they offer, which influence their impact on overall health and gut function. Green Apples 'Green apples, such as Granny Smith, are known for their tartness and are lower in natural sugars compared to their red counterparts. This makes them particularly suitable for individuals managing blood sugar levels, as they have a lower glycaemic index,' said Deepalakshmi. Green apples are slightly higher in dietary fibre, especially pectin, a soluble fibre that helps regulate bowel movements, fosters the growth of beneficial gut bacteria, and supports gut health by enhancing intestinal microbiota diversity. She added that they also contain polyphenols, which are known for their anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties, contributing to a healthier gut by protecting against oxidative stress and inflammation. Apples are a rich source of pectin (Source: Freepik) Red Apples According to her, red apples, such as Red Delicious and Fuji, are sweeter and have a higher concentration of anthocyanins, which are potent antioxidants found in their skin. These antioxidants help protect the gut from oxidative damage, support heart health, and can also reduce inflammation, benefiting overall gut health. 'Though red apples contain slightly less fibre than green apples, they still provide an excellent amount of both soluble and insoluble fibre, which is crucial for maintaining regular bowel movements and a healthy digestive tract,' she added. Red vs Green: Which is better? While both red and green apples are beneficial for gut health, Deepalakshmi said that green apples may have a slight edge due to their lower sugar content and higher fibre levels, particularly in promoting gut health in individuals looking to manage weight or improve blood sugar control. She added that consuming apples with the peel is essential, as most of the fibre, polyphenols, and antioxidants are concentrated in this part of the fruit. For optimal benefits, Deepalakshmi recommends incorporating apples into a balanced diet, focusing on whole, minimally processed foods rich in fibre and antioxidants.
Observer
01-04-2025
- Health
- Observer
Is chia seed water good for you?
In a video on TikTok, a woman waves a plastic water bottle containing chia seeds, lemon juice and water in front of the camera. She's on her fourth day of drinking the gloop, she says. 'Let me tell you something,' she adds, 'this is, like, the realest thing I've ever learned on the internet. I am the most constipated person I know,' but since drinking the chia seeds, she continues, she has 'never been so regular.' It's a familiar line on TikTok, where views for many videos about 'the internal shower,' as the drink has been called, number in the millions. Chia seed water is made from simple ingredients: just a tablespoon or two of chia seeds, water and perhaps a squeeze of lemon juice for taste. Yet the drink has been said to have big benefits, including helping with bloating, bowel irregularity and even weight loss. To a certain extent, these claims are true, said Amanda Lynett, a dietitian specialising in gastroenterology and hepatology at Michigan Medicine. Thanks to the high fiber content, chia seeds are one of her go-to dietary recommendations for people who struggle with constipation, she said. But you don't have to chug them in water to enjoy their benefits. Experts say that no matter how you consume chia seeds — whether sprinkled onto oatmeal or yoghurt, or mixed into puddings, baked goods or smoothies — they'll still help your digestion. What does the research suggest? When asked if any studies had examined whether chia seeds could reduce constipation, the experts said they weren't aware of any. But there's good research in general showing that dietary fiber — an essential nutrient abundant in chia seeds — can help. A 2-tablespoon serving of dry chia seeds contains nearly 10 grammes of fiber. That's more than twice the amount in a medium Red Delicious apple and a good portion of the recommended 21 to 38 grammes most people should eat each day. Chia seeds contain both soluble and insoluble fiber, said Dr Sophie M Balzora, a gastroenterologist at NYU Langone Health. Soluble fiber forms a gel-like substance when it dissolves in water and can help keep your stool soft, while insoluble fiber adds mass to your bowel movements, making them bulkier and easier to pass, Balzora said. So, there is some truth to the idea that chia seeds can help with constipation. Lynett added that they can also help reduce bloating and discomfort. This laxative like effect isn't unique to chia seeds, said Joanne Slavin, a dietitian and professor of food science and nutrition at the University of Minnesota. Other fiber-rich foods — such as nuts and seeds, most fruits and vegetables, and whole grains — can help reduce constipation too; as can staying hydrated and taking fiber-rich supplements such as psyllium husk. Some on social media have said that chia seed water can also help you lose weight — fast. One woman on TikTok said it helped her lose 4 pounds in three days. Such rapid weight changes are probably a result of losing water weight from going to the bathroom, not of losing body fat, Balzora said. That weight would most likely come right back after drinking a large glass of water, she added. But chia seed water could help you feel full, which could reduce how many calories you consume. 'You're going to feel more satiated than someone who had, say, a bagel,' Balzora said. Over time, this could contribute to longer-term weight loss. Does the water do anything special? Consuming chia seeds in liquid might be easier on your stomach than eating them dry, Lynett said. When you soak chia seeds in water, they expand and produce a slimy substance called mucilage, said Elvira de Mejia, a professor of food science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. This is part of what helps to bulk up your stool and keep it soft. When you eat chia seeds dry, Lynett said, that expansion happens in your gut instead of in your glass, potentially leading to bloating and cramping. No matter how you consume them, the discomfort you feel from eating chia seeds will depend on how much fiber you're used to eating in general, she said. It may take some experimentation to figure out how many chia seeds mixed into your food or drink will ease your constipation without stomach discomfort. Lynett recommended starting off with 1 tablespoon (or less) and soaking the seeds in water (or milk to create chia pudding, or adding them to overnight oats or smoothies) until they've visibly expanded. That said, if you notice any sudden changes in your typical bowel habits, such as unusual constipation, blood in your stool, vomiting or severe stomach pain, it's a good idea to forget the chia seeds and see a doctor, as these symptoms can sometimes signal a serious condition, Balzora said. You can start with a primary care doctor, who might then refer you to a gastroenterologist. — The New York Times
Buzz Feed
28-03-2025
- General
- Buzz Feed
"My First Exposure To This Was As A Teen In The '80s": 21 Foods Gen X'ers And Boomers Didn't Have Access To Growing Up That Would Send Younger Folks Into A Spiral
It's wild to think that the foods we eat regularly in the US today weren't even a thing a couple of decades ago. Recently, someone asked older folks over on the r/AskOldPeople subreddit to share some of the foods that weren't commonly available in their youth that they love to eat now. Here are a few they mentioned that were hard to come by back in the day. 1. "Lettuce varieties other than iceberg." — architeuthiswfng "Fifty years ago, I didn't know lettuce meant anything but iceberg." — newbie527 "Exposure to other types of lettuce generally required going out to a fancy restaurant." — JustAnotherDay1977 2. "Hummus." — hey_gmane "Yes! My first exposure to hummus was as a teen in the '80s. I was at a festival and went to get some food from the vendor area. The young woman serving my sandwich asked if I wanted it with hummus. I thought she meant humus as if she would put dirt on my sandwich. Ever the adventurer, I said sure! It was so delicious to my 16-year-old palate." — Radiant_Location_636 3. "Thai food!" freckledfairy_ / Via — FunnyAnchor123 "I'm from a rural area. I didn't have Thai food until I was about 17. I grew up upper-middle class, and my siblings, parents, and I were adventurous eaters. Once, my mom tried it on a girls' trip to NYC about 10 years ago. She had to learn to make it at home so we could try it. There still isn't a Thai place within an hour of my parents' house." — Ambitious_County_680 4. "Yogurt. We only had Dannon plain yogurt with fruit on the bottom and tons of sugar." — Suitable-Lawyer-9397 "I remember seeing ads on TV for yogurt in the '60s. The commercial showed people skiing down snowy mountains and claimed it was refreshingly delicious. I begged my mother to purchase some, which she did. I tried it and immediately announced that it was the most vile, sour pudding that I ever tasted." — WillontheHill77 5. "Apples have so much more variety now! It used to be Red Delicious, McIntosh, and the exotic Golden Delicious and Granny Smith apples." 6. "Sushi, nigiri, and sashimi. If I told my 16-year-old self that I love raw fish and wasabi soy sauce, he would laugh in my face." — spicyface "Sushi was new (to us) in the '90s. We were at a fancy restaurant at that time, and someone ordered a roll as an appetizer. My buddy thought the wasabi was guacamole and ate the whole wad on a tortilla chip. Yowza! We still laugh about it." — DSCN__034 7. "Birria. Where have you been all my life?" ianjmcg / Via — Relaxmf2022 "Authentic Mexican food in general." — Dimmer_switchin 8. "My brother became a vegetarian in 1985, and there weren't a lot of options back then. Going out anywhere was a nightmare — even pasta places had meat in all their sauces. There are so many options now." — Dull-Crew1428 "Oh my gosh. I've been a vegetarian my whole life. The availability of vegetarian options is a MASSIVE difference from my childhood. I went from a life of mostly eating french fries and side salads at a lot of restaurants to now having veggie burgers or something substantial, even in really rural areas." — spider_hugs 9. "Believe it or not, when I was growing up in the '60s, pizza places didn't exist. I had it for the first time in college around 1974." Houston Chronicle/Hearst Newspap / Houston Chronicle via Getty Images — Cherry-Tomato-6200 "Our first Pizza Hut opened around 1974, and it was awesome to sit down with those red cups and eat real pizza made in a proper oven. All-you-could-eat salad and pizza for lunch was also new." — Kingsolomanhere 10. "Olive oil. We used lard." — reddragongems2012 "Mom kept a can of bacon grease under the sink. That was the lard substitute." — ArdRi6 11. "Ruby red grapefruit. Grapefruits and grapefruit juice used to be yellow and tart as hell. Ruby reds started showing up (in my world) in the late '80s. Now I can't find yellow grapefruit anywhere! All grapefruit at our local grocery stores are ruby red (which is the better of the two, in my opinion)." 12. "Salmon. I grew up on the East Coast, and we had only East Coast fish in the stores: flounder, spot, whiting, croaker, etc. I went to the Seattle area in high school and got my first taste of salmon. I ate salmon steaks every night for dinner that trip, but it was several years before they were sold in any store at home." — Tatworth 13. "Rotisserie chickens." Balmerhippie / Via 14. "I'd say the flavored seltzer water market is pretty massive now. I don't remember anything beyond club soda and tonic water being around when I was younger." — DamnGoodMarmalade 15. "Gluten-free options for snack/junk food." lainey1503 / Via 16. "I grew up in the '50s and '60s, and there were no Mexican restaurants, let alone food like tortillas or avocados in grocery stores." — Straight_Coconut_317 "I grew up in Southern California in the '60s and '70s. I don't remember the first time that I ate it because it was everywhere, but my cousins who visited from New Jersey sure did. On the flip side, I remember I first had Italian food (that wasn't pizza) when visiting them on the East Coast." — General-Heart4787 17. "The variety of breads. Getting a fresh, hard roll or bagel was special." NectarineOverPeach / Via — Malterre "I never even saw a bagel until college. I remember one of my first jobs had a small coffee shop next door. The morning break was a bagel with cream cheese and pineapple. It was a few more years before I tasted a pretzel." — rusty0123 19. "Yukon gold potatoes. There was no such thing until 1980. Well, available to the public." Philltron / Via 20. "Mangos. I was in my 20s before I tasted a mango. I still think they taste like paradise now at the age of 46." — Adorable_Misfit 21. "Middle Eastern food. I love shawarma, kofta kebabs, hummus, and baklava. We have so many restaurants to choose from where I live — I don't think there were any when I was a kid."
Washington Post
25-02-2025
- General
- Washington Post
Move over, croutons. Add parmesan crisps to this wintry salad instead.
There's a viral post circulating on social media in which a woman declares that, by the ago of 30, people should have a favorite apple. I have a few, two of which are Honeycrisp and Braeburn. (Also, consider this the start of my petition to rename Red Delicious, because delicious they are not.) I believe you should have a favorite orange, too.
Voice of America
10-02-2025
- Science
- Voice of America
Protecting Apple Trees from Climate Change
Researchers in the U.S. state of Michigan are looking for ways to help apple trees survive bad weather. To do this, one researcher plans to use a late bloomer. The late blooming tree is a native Michigan apple tree known by the scientific name Malus coronaria. To fight freezing temperatures, the tree blooms two or three weeks later than trees that produce cultivated varieties of apples like Honeycrisp or Red Delicious. 'That doesn't sound like a lot, but almost always that's enough for the flowers to escape the killing spring frost,' said Steve van Nocker. He is a professor and plant geneticist at Michigan State University. Van Nocker wants to identify the genes responsible for the Malus coronaria's delayed blooms. Then he will use those genes to develop more frost-resistant apple varieties. Van Nocker's project is one of many ways researchers and growers are trying to make apples more resilient. They say this is important because of climate change. Other researchers are making similar efforts. Jared Buono is the director of Cornell University's Hudson Valley Research Laboratory in New York state. Buono's lab is adding solar panels to its experimental orchard. He said growers are experimenting with solar panels in Europe and South Korea. The panels protect fruit from hail and sun damage but also let in light and heat when necessary. University of Maryland researchers recently announced the development of a more heat-tolerant apple variety. At Penn State University in Pennsylvania, a team built an unmanned vehicle that uses propane fuel to warm trees up as it moves around an orchard. Buono said these efforts can ease the effects of bad weather. On May 18, 2023, frost damaged trees across New York state and cut apple production by 20 percent. A recent Washington State University study examined weather in apple growing areas from 1979 to 2022. It said the top apple producing states of Washington, Michigan and New York reported fewer cold days and more warm fall nights than they used to. Washington state also has reported more extreme heat. The study said warming temperatures could cause trees to come out of dormancy too early and increase the risk of sunburn. This hurts the quality of apples. Malus coronaria is also called sweet crabapple. It was once so common in Michigan that its blossoms were named the state flower in 1897. But, van Nocker said it appears to be disappearing. The trees that remain often produce little new growth or fruit. Van Nocker and graduate student Lily Christian recently took cuttings from some trees. They will test them to make sure they are fully Malus coronaria and not a hybrid variety. Then, the cuttings will be grafted onto apple rootstock. They hope to get healthy trees using this method. Their goal is to identify the genes that cause late blooming and create a variety of apple that can be sold in markets. Van Nocker is also sending seeds to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. If the tree continues to disappear, he hopes to save its genes this way. Making a later-blooming commercial apple could take more than 10 years. If a Malus coronaria is crossbred with a commercial apple tree to make a new hybrid, it would take four or five years for that tree to start producing apples. Crossbreeding would continue until researchers developed an apple with the desired qualities of both varieties. But van Nocker said it is important to try. 'With climate change, it's quite possible that apples won't be able to be produced in Michigan in the future,' he said. 'That's why cultivar improvement, especially in terms of frost resistance, is so important.' I'm Anna Matteo. Dee-Ann Durbin reported this story for the Associated Press from Washington. Anna Matteo adapted it for VOA Learning English. ___________________________________ Words in This Story bloomer –n. a plant that produces flowers at a certain time of year cultivated variety –n. a kind of plant that has been specifically developed for use in agriculture or in people's gardens frost –n. a layer of ice that can develop on plants when temperatures fall below freezing which damages fruit resilient –adj. able to withstand shocks or bad treatment and return to normal orchard –n. an area or farm where fruit trees are grown solar panel –n. a device that turns sunlight into direct electrical current tolerant –adj. able to withstand difficult or bad conditions dormancy –n. a state, during winter or dry conditions, when a plant does not grow but saves its energy for the growing season hybrid –n. a variety of plant that comes from the combination of genetic material from two or more plants graft –v. to take a cutting from one plant and attach it to another so that it grows, flowers and produces fruit rootstock –n. (horticulture) living roots that are combined with the branches of other, similar plants which will grow together with the qualities of both plants crossbreed –v. to use one of several methods to combine the genetic qualities to make an improved plant commercial -adj. designed mainly for profit
