Dr. Martin Root

Does an apple a day really keep the doctor away? Surprisingly, not much research has been done on determining the validity of the famous proverb about apples. However, Appalachian State University’s Dr. Martin “Marty” Root is changing this. He is currently researching the health benefits of triterpenoids, a family of compounds found in the waxy skin of apples and pears. These compound are thought to reduce inflammation, a benefit useful for athletes and arthritis sufferers.

Root has been at the university since 2008. He started his science career as a research technician studying insect biochemistry and toxicology at Cornell University. From there, he moved to nutrition and spent 16 years in the lab of T. Colin Campbell researching diet and chronic disease, particularly involving animal models of liver cancer. From 1980 to 1996 he was involved in an epidemiologic study in rural China that examined the dietary correlates of chronic diseases. The study became the basis for the well-known book by Campbell on plant-based diets called “The China Study.” Root later worked in a start-up firm in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, that developed risk models for chronic diseases into web-based services for health promotion and insurance companies. Root and a colleague patented a statistical tool for aggregating risk factors into these models.

Areas of expertise

• Diet and chronic diseases
• Nutritional biomarkers
• The health benefits of apples