Jodie Vanderslot | Health Editor
Featured image: Adding one Golden Delicious apple to your daily diet will surely do something. | Courtesy of Gerhard Gellinger
It’s a saying that’s been tossed along from generation to generation: “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.” The meaning is simple—however, does the message carry as much weight as it claims?
This folk wisdom emerged around the 1860’s, where the slogan then was: “Eat an apple on going to bed, and you’ll keep the doctor from earning his bread.”
However, the saying we’re most familiar with was re-appropriated in the 19th century.
A recent study from a hospital in Somewhere, conducted by some potentially influential person—depending on who you ask—says most doctors do not encourage the consumption of apples, as it means fewer visits to see your friendly faces and takes away their ability to provide instant solutions to your problems. While this advice may be controversial, a student once said (not even sarcastically): “The wait-lines are part of the fun when you’re sick.”
The standard dietary recommendation consists of six to seven servings of fruits and vegetables a day. Fruits provides one’s body with a source of fibre, an essential component for a healthy heart, stomach, and liver. A regular-sized apple contains approximately 25 grams of carbohydrates—the majority coming from fructose, which occurs naturally in fruit sugar.
Apples contain properties that no other fruits have, “these benefits have been proven overtime,” adds a different doctor from a different place. Apples contain vitamin C, are low in calories, and contain phenols, which reduce bad cholesterol, while increasing the good. Apples prevent heart disease, cancers, and tooth decay, but most importantly, they’re known for they’re great taste—depending on the type.
Not only do apples keep the doctors away, they also keep you awake and improve breathing. Apples contain no caffeine—however, it is the sugar and vitamins slowly released throughout the body that make one feel more awake.
The debate on which apple is healthier has also been called into question—while green apples may contain more fibre and less carbohydrates and sugar than red apples, the antioxidants in red apples are almost insufficiently more—almost.
This same doctor adds: “When you’ve got antioxidants, you don’t need to worry about toxicity.” The antioxidants in apples—red specifically—provide anti-inflammatory benefits. So, an apple a day may keep the doctor away—but only if you eat the peel.
