In 2025, Changhu Sun and a team from Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine looked at data from 2,207 older adults in the US from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2011-2014). They created a score called the Dietary Index for Gut Microbiota to see how foods that help good gut bugs—like fruits, veggies, whole grains, beans, yogurt, and fish—affect thinking skills.

In 2013, Manfred Lamprecht and team from Graz, Austria, studied 34 obese women in a 12-week trial. They split them into four groups: one got a fruit/vegetable juice powder concentrate, another got the powder plus exercise, a third just exercised, and the last got a placebo. They measured inflammation, oxidative stress, and blood flow markers.

In 2023, Carly Fraser from Live Love Fruit reviewed Apeel Sciences' edible coatings, like Organipeel for organic produce. Apeel mimics fruit skins to reduce spoilage, using citric acid from black mold fermentation and mono/diglycerides from plant oils processed with solvents like heptane.

A 2025 study in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that higher intakes of black tea, berries, citrus fruits, and apples were linked to a lower risk of frailty, physical decline, and poor mental health in older adults. Women with the highest flavonoid intake had up to a 15% lower risk of frailty.