An old proverb attests to the health benefits of the fruit: “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.” Research suggests that apples may reduce the risk of colon cancer, prostate cancer and lung cancer. Like many fruits, apples contain Vitamin C as well as a host of other antioxidant compounds, which may reduce the risk of cancer by preventing DNA damage.
The fiber content, while less than in most other fruits, helps regulate bowel movements and may thus reduce the risk of colon cancer. They may also help with heart disease, weight loss and controlling cholesterol, as they do not have any cholesterol, have fiber, which reduces cholesterol by preventing reabsorption, and are bulky for their caloric content like most fruits and vegetables.
There is evidence that in vitro, apples possess phenolic compounds which may be cancer-protective and demonstrate antioxidant activity. The predominant phenolic phytochemicals in apples are quercetin, epicatechin, and procyanidin B2.
The seeds are mildly poisonous, containing a small amount of amygdalin, a cyanogenic glycoside; usually not enough to be dangerous to humans, but it can deter birds.
Health Benefits
Easy on the digestion, apples contain malic and tartaric acids that inhibit fermentation in the intestines. Their high fiber content adds bulk that aids the digestive process, making elimination natural and comfortable. Apples contain pectin, a soluble fiber that encourages the growth of beneficial bacteria in the digestive tract.Apples contain flavonoids, antioxidants that improve immune function and prevent heart disease and some cancers.
Green apples act as a liver and gall bladder cleanser and may aid in softening gallstones.
Because of their high water content, apples are cooling and moistening and aid in reducing fever. Simply grate them and serve them to feverish patients. Steamed apples sweetened with honey are beneficial for a dry cough and may help to remove mucous from the lungs.
Hippocrates , the Greek physician considered the father of medicine, was a proponent of nutritional healing. His favorite remedies were apples, dates, and barley mush.
Today medical practitioners are beginning to recognize that the apple’s abundant quantity of pectin is an aid in reducing high cholesterol as well as blood sugar, a wonder food for people with coronary artery disease and diabetes.
If these aren’t enough reasons to “eat an apple a day,” there’s more. Eating raw apples gives the gums a healthy massage and cleans the teeth. This popular fruit is said to have properties that are a muscle tonic, diuretic, laxative, antidiarrheal, antirheumatic, and stomachic.
Nutritional Benefits
Unpeeled apples provide their most plentiful nutrients just under the skin. Apples are a good source of potassium, folic acid, and vitamin C.
A medium apple, approximately 5 ounces, has only 81 calories and a whopping 3.7 grams of fiber from pectin, a soluble fiber. A medium apple supplies 159 mg of potassium, 3.9 mcg of folic acid, 7.9 mg of vitamin C, and 9.6 mg of calcium.Additionally, there are trace amounts of B vitamins, iron, magnesium, and zinc .
Apple Facts
About 10% of an apple is made up of carbohydrate. Apples contain dietary fibre in their skins and core. About 4% of an apple is made up of vitamins and minerals. The rest of the apple, more than 80%, is made up of water. A medium-sized eating apple contains about 40 calories  one kilo of fresh apples provides approximately 2100kJ (500 kcal) of energy. Excluding the peel and core of apples from the diet almost halves the amounts of Vitamin C and dietary fibre available in the whole fruit, but makes very little difference to the sugar content.
Washing the skin to remove any contaminants is advisable. Apple pips taste a little bitter, like almonds, and contain traces of cyanide  but not enough to be harmful!
Fruit and vegetables are an important part of a balanced diet. Health advisory organisations recommend we eat at least five portions of fruit and vegetables a day to help reduce cancer risks and improve heart health. Apples are a good ‘snack’ food and are easy to eat fresh. From food intake questionnaires returned to the Institute of Food Research we know that women in Norfolk between the ages of 24-34 eat most apples  about 1 a day. Young adult men eat very few apples. Figures for older adults vary between 4-6 a week, with little difference between men and women.
But, there are many other forms in which we can eat apples or drink their juice. Premium juice with the distinct flavour of English apples is altered as little as possible after the apples have been pressed. The juice is flash-pasteurised to give it a shelf-life of up to two years and prevent it fermenting and turning into cider. Apple juice is a mixture of sugars (primarily fructose, glucose and sucrose), oligosaccharides and polysaccharides (eg starch) together with malic, quinic and citromalic acids, tannins (ie polyphenols), amides and other nitrogenous compounds, soluble pectin, vitamin C, minerals and the diverse range of esters (eg ethyl-methyl-butyrate and iso-butyl acetate) which give the juice a typical apple-like aroma. The relative proportions will be dependant on the apple cultivar, the cultural conditions under which it was grown, the state of maturity of fruit at the time of pressing, the extent of physical and biological damage (eg mould rots), and, to a lesser extent, the efficiency with which the juice was pressed from the fruit. Apple juice is versatile in cooking; it can form the basis of a syrup, or be added to a sauce. It can be used instead of apple purée for mousses, ices and jellies.
Food Chart
This chart graphically details the %DV that a serving of Apples provides for each of the nutrients of which it is a good, very good, or excellent source according to our Food Rating System. Additional information about the amount of these nutrients provided by Apples can be found in the Food Rating System Chart. A link that takes you to the In-Depth Nutritional Profile for Apples, featuring information over 80 nutrients, can be found under the Food Rating System Chart.
Health Benefits
According to the latest research, the old saying, “An apple a day keeps the doctor away,” is fact, not just folklore. The nutritional stars in apples-fiber, flavonoids, and fructose-translate into apples’ ability to keep us healthy.
Cardio-Protective Fiber
Apples contain both insoluble and soluble fiber. One medium (5 ounces) unpeeled apple provides over 3 grams of fiber, more than 10% of the daily fiber intake recommended by experts. Even without its peel, a medium apple provides 2.7 grams of fiber.
Apple’s two types of fiber pack a double punch that can knock down cholesterol levels, reducing your risk of hardening of the arteries, heart attack, and stroke.
Apple’s insoluble fiber works like bran, latching on to LDL cholesterol in the digestive tract and removing it from the body, while apple’s soluble fiber pectin reduces the amount of LDL cholesterol produced in the liver. Adding just one large apple (about 2/3 of a pound) to the daily diet has been shown to decrease serum cholesterol 8-11%. Eating 2 large apples a day has lowered cholesterol levels by up to 16%!
A study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine confirms that eating high fiber foods, such as apples, helps prevent heart disease. Almost 10,000 American adults participated in this study and were followed for 19 years. People eating the most fiber, 21 grams per day, had 12% less CHD and 11% less CVD compared to those eating the least, 5 grams daily. Those eating the most water-soluble dietary fiber fared even better with a 15% reduction in risk of CHD and a 10% risk reduction in CVD.
LDL cholesterol isn’t the only harmful compound on apple’s removal list. Pectin grabs toxins like the heavy metals lead and mercury, and ushers them out of the body. Both the soluble and insoluble fibers in apples have cancer-protective activity since they relieve constipation and send potentially toxic substances out with the stools.
When it comes to bowel regularity, apple’s two types of fiber tackle the job-no matter what it is. Both the insoluble fiber in apples and their soluble fiber pectin help relieve constipation (thus helping to prevent diverticulosis and colon cancer). The insoluble fiber works like roughage, while the pectin, which is found primarily in the skin, acts as a stool softener by drawing water into the stool and increasing stool bulk. On the other hand, because pectin firms up an excessively loose stool, it’s also used to treat diarrhea.
Cardio-Protective Flavonoids
A type of pigment in apples that helps provide their color, flavonoids have been extensively researched and found to help prevent heart disease. Researchers in Finland followed over 5,000 Finish men and women for over 20 years. Those who ate the most apples and other flavonoid-rich foods (such as onions and tea), were found to have a 20% lower risk of heart disease than those who ate the least of these foods.
Apples have been singled out as one of the small number of fruits and vegetables that contributed to the significant reduction in heart disease risk seen in a recent meta-analysis of seven prospective studies. Of the more than 100,000 individuals who participated in these studies, those who diets most frequently included apples, tea, onions, and broccoli-the richest sources of flavonoids-gained a 20% reduction in their risk of heart disease.
Apple skin and onions are the two major food sources of a potent flavonoid called quercitin. If, in addition to eating an apple a day, you add 2 tablespoons of onion and 4 cups of green tea (also rich in flavonoids) to your menu, you, like the men who consumed these foods in another study, may have a 32% lower risk of heart attack than people who consume less of these foods.
Quercitin’s benefits derive from its antioxidant activity, especially when it teams up with another antioxidant, vitamin C, also found in apples, to bolster the body’s immune defenses. This dynamic antioxidant duo provides another way (in addition to fiber) through which apples protect against cancer and also helps prevent the free radical damage to LDL cholesterol that promotes heart disease.
Juice Ranked among the Highest in Antioxidant Activity. Not all fruit juices are the same. They differ markedly in the variety of phenolic compounds and antioxidant activity. Concord grapes came out on top with the highest and broadest range of polyphenols and the highest overall antioxidant capacity.
Other top scorers were cloudy apple juice, cranberry juice and grapefruit juice. Apples have long been touted as an excellent source of flavonoids that act as antioxidants, moping up oxygen free radicals that can damage DNA. Now, Eric Gershwin and colleagues from the University of California, Davis, US, have discovered a new way in which flavonoid-rich apples help protect against heart disease and cancers that goes beyond their flavonoids’ antioxidant effects.
Fructose for Stable Blood Sugar Levels
Apples derive almost all of their natural sweetness from fructose, a simple sugar, but one which is broken down slowly, especially when combined with apples’ hefty dose of fiber, thus helping to keep blood sugar levels stable.
Prevent Kidney Stones
Want to reduce your risk of calcium oxalate kidney stones? Drink apple juice. A study published in the British Journal of Nutrition found that when women drank ½ to 1 liter of apple, grapefruit or orange juice daily, their urinary pH value and citric acid excretion increased, significantly dropping their risk of forming calcium oxalate stones.
Promote Optimal Health
Whole apple extracts-in amounts comparable to human consumption of one, three or six apples a day-were shown to prevent breast cancer in test animals in a study published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. And apples worked in a dose-dependent manner; the more apples eaten, the more protection.
We definitely agree with the researchers in the first (breast cancer) study, who suggest that because apples are so richly endowed with phytonutrients capable of strong antioxidant and anticancer activities and are so universally enjoyed, eating an apple (or two) a day may be effective way to lessen the incidence of breast (and colon) cancer.
Natural Sun Protection
It’s long been known that apple peel contains high concentrations of special antioxidant compounds called phenols that may assist in the prevention of a number of chronic diseases. Now it appears that the phenols in the skin of certain cultivars of apples may provide a hefty dose of UV-B protection, according to a study published in the Journal of Experimental Botany. Researchers evaluated both Granny Smith and Braeburn apples, with Braeburns being the clear winner in terms of their ability to accumulate UV-B protective quercitin glycosides in their sun-exposed skin. Sun-kissed Braeburns were resistant to high doses of UV-B radiation (up to 97kJ m-2). Next time you plan to spend time in the sun yourself, start your day with a Braeburn apple or bring one or two along for lunch and snacks.
A major review study published in the Nutrition Journal provides dozens of reasons to enjoy an apple every day.
A review study is one that looks at the results of  many other studies. This one included an analysis of 85 studies. Apples were found to be most consistently associated with a reduced risk of cancer, heart disease, asthma, and type 2 diabetes when compared to other fruits and vegetables. In addition, eating apples was also associated with increased lung function and increased weight loss.
Here are some of the reasons why:
Apples are a rich and very important source of phytonutrients, including flavonoids and phenols, in the American diet and in Europe. In the United States, 22% of the phenolic compounds consumed from fruits come from apples, making them the largest source of phenols in the American diet.
When compared to other fruits, apples ranked second in total concentration of phenolic compounds, and perhaps more importantly, had the highest portion of free phenols. Since free phenols are not bound to other compounds in the fruit, they may be more available for absorption into the bloodstream.
Apples’ protective effects against free radical damage to cholesterol reach their peak at three hours following apple consumption and drop off after 24 hours, providing yet another good reason to eat a whole fresh apple a day.In animal studies, apples have also been shown to lower LDL (“bad”) cholesterol while raising beneficial HDL cholesterol. Not only did the laboratory animals in these studies produce less cholesterol, but they also excreted more in their feces when fed apples, pears and peaches-but apples had the greatest cholesterol-lowering effect.
In the most recent studies, investigators found that the combination of apple pectin and apple phenols lowered cholesterol and triglycerides to a much greater extent than either apple pectin or phenols alone. This again suggests a beneficial synergy between the many healthful compounds found in apples and supports eating the whole fruit instead of simply drinking apple juice, eating peel-free applesauce or taking fiber supplements.
Apples have also been shown to greatly inhibit the growth of liver and colon cancer cells in several studies. In one study, at a dose of 50 mg/mL, liver cancer cell proliferation was inhibited by 39% by extracts of whole Fuji apple and 57% by whole Red Delicious extracts. In another study in which colon cancer cells were treated with apple extracts, cell proliferation was inhibited 43% at a dose of 50 mg/mL.
Promote Optimal Health
Eating an apple a day may also offer significant protection against breast cancer, suggests an animal study published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry . When laboratory animals with breast cancer were fed the human equivalent of 1, 3 or 6 apples a day for 6 months, their tumors shrank by 25%, 25%, and 61%, respectively.
Researchers credit apples’ strong protective action to the synergistic interactions among the wide variety of potent antioxidant and antiproliferative phytonutrients, including phenolics and flavonoids, they contain.
In several large epidemiological (population) studies conducted in the United Kingdom, Finland and the Netherlands, apple consumption (a minimum of 2 apples per week) was found to be inversely linked with asthma and type 2 diabetes, and positively associated with general lung health. Researchers attribute apples’ protective effects in these conditions to apples’ high concentration of anti-inflammatory flavonoids, such as quercitin and catechin.
In addition to their beneficial effects against chronic diseases including cancer, cardiovascular disease, asthma and diabetes, apples may also help combat cholera. Recently, crude extracts from immature apples were found to inhibit cholera toxin in a dose dependent manner by up to 98%.
A Flavonoid Unique to Apples May Help Prevent Menopausal Bone Loss. A flavonoid found only in apples called phloridzin may help prevent bone loss associated with menopause, suggests a study published in Calcified Tissue International..A side effect of the sex hormone changes that occur during a woman’s transition through menopause is a tendency towards increased inflammation and free radical production, which in turn, promotes bone loss.
Because of their anti-inflammatory actions, polyphenols have been suggested as one means of protecting against bone loss during this pro-inflammatory time in women’s lives.
To test this theory, French researchers ovariectomized lab animals (to simulate menopause) and divided them into two groups, which were given either a control diet or a diet supplemented with phloridzin for 80 days. Three weeks before the animals were sacrificed, 10 animals in each group were put into an inflammatory state.
While all the animals on the control diet lost bone, and those in the inflammatory state lost even more bone, the rats receiving phloridzin not only did not lose bone, but actually increased bone mineral density-even if they were experiencing a high inflammatory state!
Fruits richest in fiber include apples, dates, figs, pears and prunes. When choosing a high fiber cereal, look for whole grain cereals as they supply the most bran (a mere 1/3rd cup of bran contains about 14 grams of fiber).2
