Why Apples Really Are Good for You

It is worth noting that, although the apple a day researchers presented serious, evidence-based data, they published their article just before April Fool's Day. The good doctors were having a little fun with us. The value of apples in the diet is actually very well established. Here are just a few of the reasons you should eat apples as often as you can, twice a day not being too often if you eat small apples. 

• Apples fight allergies. Apple peels are particularly good sources of a plant chemical called quercetin. Structurally, the quercetin molecule resembles a common antihistamine. Eating just one apple a week, in a study conducted in Scotland, reduces the risk of allergic reactions and asthma.
• Apples activate the liver. We all know that high-fructose corn syrup causes numerous health problems. The small amount fructose in an apple, however, actually increases the ability of the liver to deal with sugars so that fewer are stored as fat. There is a limit to how much fructose is helpful, about 25 grams a day, or the equivalent of two apples, if you don't eat any products containing high-fructose corn syrup at all.
• Apples may lower your risk of stroke. A study of over 9,000 people by Cornell University found that people who ate the most apples over a 28-year period had the lowest risk of stroke.
• Apples may lower your risk of dementia. The quercetin in apples also seems to reduce inflammation in the brain, reducing the complications caused by tangled proteins that coat neurons as the brain ages.
• Apples lower cholesterol in obese people. Laboratory studies with animals and preliminary studies with humans find that eating an apple a day lowers total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol when they are high, but not when they are normal or low.
• Apples may lower your risk of cardiovascular disease. A study at Oxford University found that people who at least three servings of apples a week had a lower risk of developing heart disease than people who took statins for lowering cholesterol. The National Health Service of the UK estimated that persuading Britons over the age of 50 to eat apples could save nearly 10,000 lives a year. Women who eat apples daily, according to another study, have a 13 to 22 percent lower risk of developing heart disease.
• For women, apples (and pears) reduce the risk of lung cancer. Very few vegetables seem to reduce risk of lung cancer in either women. A single serving of apples or pears a day, however, lowers risk of lung cancer in women. Eating two servings of apples or pears with either grapefruit or onion daily reduced the risk of lung cancer in women 40 to 50 percent. A simlar effect was not observed for men.
• For both men and women, apples contain chemicals that may reduce the proliferation of most forms of cancer, the process that causes a single cancer cell to grow into a tumor.

An apple is a great source of antioxidants. A single apple only contains about 6 mg of vitamin C. However, the total antioxidant power of an apple is equivalent to about 1500 mg of vitamin C, only in a variety of forms that can perform a variety of functions in the human body.

See Also: Five Fruits You Should Be Eating This Summer

Apples are inexpensive, they are available in most of the world, and they taste great. An apple a day may not keep the doctor away, but it may improve your health.