Did you know ... that berries work best on their own?

05-Feb-2024
VZ NRW/adpic

Did you know ... that berries work best on their own?

Whether in a smoothie, in muesli or as a fresh snack between meals: these small, low-sugar fruits are often praised for their health-promoting properties. And rightly so, because the flavanols contained in berries or grapes are bioactive compounds and therefore valuable ingredients for our health. However, they only have an effect in our body if they do not come into contact with the flavanol-degrading enzyme polyphenol oxidase (PPO). This enzyme is found in 18 fruit, vegetable and plant-based food products, including bananas and apples, as a recent Californian study published in the journal Food & Function shows. So if you mix berries in a smoothie with bananas, apples or apple juice, you ensure that hardly any flavanols are retained. This also applies if berries, grapes or green tea and foods containing PPO are consumed in quick succession.

The NRW consumer advice center therefore recommends: In order to preserve the valuable flavanols, berries should be used as solo artists in the morning muesli. An apple or banana is then ideal as an afternoon snack.

Note: This article has been translated using a computer system without human intervention. LUMITOS offers these automatic translations to present a wider range of current news. Since this article has been translated with automatic translation, it is possible that it contains errors in vocabulary, syntax or grammar. The original article in German can be found here.

Other news from the department business & finance

Most read news

More news from our other portals

Meat from the laboratory