Apple juice prevents oxidative stress and impaired cognitive performance caused by genetic and dietary deficiencies in mice.

Increased oxidative stress contributes to the decline in cognitive performance during normal aging and in neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer s disease. Dietary supplementation with fruits and vegetables that are high in antioxidant potential have in some cases compensated for dietary and/or genetic deficiencies that promote increased oxidative stress. Herein, we demonstrate that apple juice concentrate, administered ad libitum in drinking water, can compensate for the increased reactive oxygen species and decline in cognitive performance in maze trials observed when normal and transgenic mice lacking apolipoprotein E are deprived of folate and vitamin E. In addition, we demonstrate that this protective effect is not derived from the sugar content of the concentrate.