We’ve all heard that an apple a day helps keep the doctor away. But do you know why that is? For one thing, apples are loaded with powerful antioxidants, which are responsible for many of the health benefits. The antioxidants in apples are believed to protect against heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and several cancers, including liver, colon, breast, kidney, and ovarian cancers. Author Kathy Freston reported in her book, The Lean, that apples have antimutagenic effects and have been found to block all three stages of tumor formation, including initiation, promotion, and metastasis. Plus apples may enhance our immune system to help clear budding tumors before they get their start.
Apples are a good source of vitamin C; you get about 14% of your DRI in a medium-sized apple. Interestingly, T. Colin Campbell, Ph.D. reported in his latest book, Whole, that researchers at Cornell found that 100 grams of fresh apple (approximately half a medium-size apple) has an antioxidant, vitamin C-like activity equivalent to 1,500 milligrams of a vitamin C supplement. Yet when they analyzed 100 grams of fresh apple to determine the actual vitamin C content, there were only 5.7 milligrams of vitamin C in the apple! So the Vitamin C in half an apple is about 300 times more potent than the vitamin C in supplements! Imagine what that apple can do inside your body, especially if you eat an apple a day!
Antioxidants in apples help fight colds and reduce the risk of asthma. Flavonoids and phenolic acids in apples can help calm inflammation in the airways to help control asthma. Apples improve lung function thanks to high concentrations of the antioxidant quercetin, which makes oxygen more available to lungs. Eating an apple before working out may even boost exercise endurance.
The Huffington Post reported that eating apples may help your memory and lower your risk of Alzheimer’s due to increased acetylcholine production, which communicates between nerve cells. Additionally, quercetin in apples has been found to protect brain cells from degeneration in rats, which may apply to humans too.
Readers Digest reported that apples provide bone protection. Researchers believe that the antioxidant phloridzin, a flavonoid found only in apples, may protect post-menopausal women from osteoporosis and increase bone density. Boron, also in apples, strengthens bones too.
The fiber in apples lowers cholesterol by blocking absorption of cholesterol and preventing cholesterol from building up in the lining of blood vessel walls, thus reducing the risk of atherosclerosis and heart disease. Not only are apples low in calories, the fiber in apples delays emptying of the stomach and turns off the hunger signal, which makes us feel full longer and can help with weight loss. And don’t forget, fiber cleans out our bodies. A medium apple has 4.4 grams of fiber, about 1/5 of the daily requirement.
Apples are high in potassium, which prevents high blood pressure and therefore reduces the risk of stroke.
All the benefits mentioned here come from eating the whole fruit, skin and all, not from drinking apple juice, because most of the antioxidants are in the skin, and of course, all the fiber is in the whole apple. So go bite into a fresh apple, or dice it up and add it to cereal, or add it to a smoothie, and experience the benefits yourself. It’s absolutely applicious!
Apples are a good source of vitamin C; you get about 14% of your DRI in a medium-sized apple. Interestingly, T. Colin Campbell, Ph.D. reported in his latest book, Whole, that researchers at Cornell found that 100 grams of fresh apple (approximately half a medium-size apple) has an antioxidant, vitamin C-like activity equivalent to 1,500 milligrams of a vitamin C supplement. Yet when they analyzed 100 grams of fresh apple to determine the actual vitamin C content, there were only 5.7 milligrams of vitamin C in the apple! So the Vitamin C in half an apple is about 300 times more potent than the vitamin C in supplements! Imagine what that apple can do inside your body, especially if you eat an apple a day!
Antioxidants in apples help fight colds and reduce the risk of asthma. Flavonoids and phenolic acids in apples can help calm inflammation in the airways to help control asthma. Apples improve lung function thanks to high concentrations of the antioxidant quercetin, which makes oxygen more available to lungs. Eating an apple before working out may even boost exercise endurance.
The Huffington Post reported that eating apples may help your memory and lower your risk of Alzheimer’s due to increased acetylcholine production, which communicates between nerve cells. Additionally, quercetin in apples has been found to protect brain cells from degeneration in rats, which may apply to humans too.
Readers Digest reported that apples provide bone protection. Researchers believe that the antioxidant phloridzin, a flavonoid found only in apples, may protect post-menopausal women from osteoporosis and increase bone density. Boron, also in apples, strengthens bones too.
The fiber in apples lowers cholesterol by blocking absorption of cholesterol and preventing cholesterol from building up in the lining of blood vessel walls, thus reducing the risk of atherosclerosis and heart disease. Not only are apples low in calories, the fiber in apples delays emptying of the stomach and turns off the hunger signal, which makes us feel full longer and can help with weight loss. And don’t forget, fiber cleans out our bodies. A medium apple has 4.4 grams of fiber, about 1/5 of the daily requirement.
Apples are high in potassium, which prevents high blood pressure and therefore reduces the risk of stroke.
All the benefits mentioned here come from eating the whole fruit, skin and all, not from drinking apple juice, because most of the antioxidants are in the skin, and of course, all the fiber is in the whole apple. So go bite into a fresh apple, or dice it up and add it to cereal, or add it to a smoothie, and experience the benefits yourself. It’s absolutely applicious!
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