Are You Eating the Whole Apple? If Not, You’re Doing It Wrong

A new study could upend how we eat apples.

The amount of beneficial bacteria a person consumes when they eat an apple increases if they eat the entire apple — core and all — according to the study from Graz University of Technology in Austria.

For example, a type of bacteria called Lactobacillus — a famous component of probiotics — was found on organic apples, including the core and seeds, and may help with certain health conditions like digestive disorders.

To conduct the study, researchers analyzed store-bought and organic apples for their bacterial content, in everything from the stem of the apple to the peel, the flesh and the seeds.

Both store-bought and organic apples contained roughly the same amount of bacteria, but the majority of the bacteria were found in the seeds, so people who discarded the core got significantly fewer bacteria, according to researchers.

Skipping eating the core and seeds of an average apple could drop the number of microbes a person consumes from more than 100 million to 10 million, the study found.

The study also found that organic apples had a more diverse and evenly-spread bacterial community compared to store bought apples, and more bacteria with health-affecting potential.

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