An apple a day keeps the wrinkles at bay

Always famed for its health-giving qualities, the nutritional content of the apple is now being heralded as an elixir of beauty and slimming aid by the French nutraceutical firm Val de Vire Bioactives.

The firm is promoting an apple powder that can be diluted in hot or cold water to provide a daily complex of three antioxidants claimed to boost skin health and prevent premature ageing. The antioxidants include quercetin, believed to affect the expression of genes involved in dermal ageing; vitamin E, used to combat oxidative stress; and vitamin C, necessary for collagen synthesis.

The firm is also promoting Apple Active Slim: an apple juice gel concentrate enriched with apple soluble fibres and apple polyphenols.

The fibres have a satiating effect while the polyphenols reduce the formation of new fat cells by inhibiting the maturation of pre-adipocytes into adipocytes, it claimed.