Lending credence to the old adage about eating an apple a day, a new study finds that women who ate the fruit daily saw improvements in cholesterol levels and markers of inflammation — suggesting a lower risk of heart disease — in a year's time.

“每日一蘋果，醫生遠離我”的言語流傳已久，而一份最新的醫學研究發現，在一年的時間內，每日食用蘋果的女性膽固醇的水平有所改善，并且減少了炎癥的發生，這也就意味著降低了患心臟病的幾率。

The study, conducted by researchers at Florida State University, involved 160 women who were randomly assigned to eat about 2.7 ounces (75 g) of dried apples or prunes (dried plums) daily. Researchers did blood tests at the three-, six- and 12-month marks to measure heart-risk factors.

這項由美國加州州立大學開展的這項研究涉及了160名女性，按照要求他們每天都會食用75克得蘋果干或者杏仁干，研究者分別在第三、六、十二個月測量了她們的血液以分析心臟病誘因的情況。

After a year, the women who ate dried apples had lowered their total cholesterol by 14%; their levels of LDL (or "bad") cholesterol had fallen by 23%, and their levels of HDL (or good) cholesterol had increased by about 4%. Participants also experienced a 32% decline in C-reactive protein, an indicator of inflammation in the body and a risk factor for heart disease.

一年之后，那些食用蘋果干的女性的膽固醇總量TC下降了14%，低密度脂蛋白LDLD-C，也就是通常所說的壞膽固醇含量下降了23%，高密度脂蛋白HDL-C的含量增加了4%，研究對象的C反應蛋白CRP含量下降了32%，這種蛋白質會誘發人體出現炎癥的情況，是引發心臟病的誘因。

The women who ate prunes saw also slight reductions in these risk factors, but not to the same extent as those who ate apples, said study author and professor of nutrition Bahram H. Arjmandi.

營養學教授Bahram H. Arjmandi表示，食用杏仁干的女性在心臟病的誘因方面的水平也有所降低，但卻不及吃蘋果這組效果顯著。