 Daily dried apples versus daily dried plums impact on cardiovascular disease risk factors in post-metaposal women. First thing I thought was, well, was this study funded by the U.S. Apple Association or the International Prune Association? I could bet what the results would be, but turns out, neither. Just our taxpayer dollars hard at work, great. So what'd they find? 160 older women randomly assigned to a dried apple group or a dried plum group, and followed for a year, a dozen dried apple rings a day, or about eight prunes. And within three months, a significant drop in cholesterol in the apple, but not prune group, which stayed down through the rest of the study. In terms of inflammation, both dried fruit regimens lowered C-reactive protein levels about the same, though perhaps prunes may have caused a quicker decrease in information where as dried apples may result in a greater decrease overall. 12 apple rings is equivalent to eating about two apples a day. They think that the cholesterol-lowering properties of apples may be due to its unique pectin fiber composition, which may increase fecal excretion of bile, though the apple phytonutrients themselves, even without the fiber, appear to lower cholesterol on their own. What about dried figs? The California Fig Board did not want to be left out, sponsors of both Fig Fest and Fig Feast, as well as this recent study. 14 figs a day. That's a lot of figs for five weeks, and nothing. Daily consumption of figs did not reduce bad cholesterol. And finally, what about dates? Four or five dates a day for a month, and again, nothing. So if anything, they did tend to bring down triglyceride levels a little bit, which is surprising given the sugar content in dates. A recent study on the glycemic index of dates found them surprisingly low. The open circles are what straight sugar water does to your blood sugar, and here's that same amount of sugar, but in date form. Dates beat out other common fruits in terms of containing more vitamins and more minerals, in fact, touted as the richest source of dietary minerals. But because they're dried, they have about five times more calories than fresh fruits, you know, ounce browns. And so in terms of nutrient density, they're really quite comparable to these other fruit, though apples clearly have them beat when it comes to lowering cholesterol.