About Apples – An Apple A Day Keeps The Doctor Away!
Apples are a type of pomaceous fruit that is grown on deciduous trees. There are 2500 forms of apples in the United States and, 7500 types worldwide. Worldwide production of apples in 2017 was 83.1 million tonnes, with China accounting for half of the total.
Apples are supposed to be an important product throughout the world. Apples originated on the land between the Caspian and Black seas.
The most famous varieties of apple include Red Delicious, Braeburn and Rome Beauty apples, which also happen to be among the sweeter varieties that can help satisfy a sweet tooth.
This fleshy, delicately sweet fragrant fruit comes in colors ranging from hues of green, to red, to yellow!
Delicious and crunchy apple fruit is one of the most popular fruit favored by health conscious, fitness freaks who believe in “health is wealth”. This wonderful fruit packed with phyto-nutrients that in the true sense are vital for optimum health. The antioxidants in apple have many health promoting and disease prevention properties; thus justifying the adage; An apple a day keeps the doctor away.
Apples have long been considered as a food that promotes good health and fat loss, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg of the health benefits of apples!
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Apples Nutritional Information
This sweet-tasting fruit consists of 72 calories when the medium in size and hence, is an amazingly healthy and nutritious substitute to sweet-tasting junk food!
Furthermore, this crunchy delight is a rich source of vitamin C, A, K and E. These various vitamins ensure the proper working of metabolism, strong immunity system, bone growth and reproduction and damage against free radicals.
This delicious tasting fruit is also rich in minerals including calcium – good for the bones, iron – produces hemoglobin, and sodium, potassium and magnesium – ensuring healthy cell and muscle growth.
Health Benefits Of Apples
1. Excellent Dieting Regime!
Looking at the apple nutrition facts, it’s clear that why this fruit is highly sought after by the dieters world. One apple has just 95 calories, making it a perfect low calorie snack when a craving strikes.
2. Soak Up The Vitamins!
Many crucial vitamins can be found in relatively large numbers in just one apple, including vitamin C, and K. vitamin c is a powerhouse antioxidant on its own and benefits our bodies by keeping it at bay from free radical damage, infectious diseases and viruses. Vitamin k helps in bone fortification and proper growth of the body.
3. The B Complex Goodness!
Apple fruit is a good source or B-complex vitamins such as riboflavin, thiamin and pyridoxine(B6). These vitamins help as co-factors for enzymes in metabolism as well as various synthetic functions inside the body. Vitamin B complexes help in boosting energy, combating everyday stress, control our cravings and speeding up our metabolism.
4. Anti-Cancer, Anti-Heart Disease!
Apples are encumbered with pectin, a soluble fiber that aids digestion and may help reduce cancers and heart disease.
5. Abundance Of Dietary Fiber!
Apples are rich in dietary fiber which helps prevent absorption of dietary LDL cholesterol in the gut. The fiber also helps to protect the mucous membrane of the colon from exposure to toxic substances by binding to cancer causing chemicals in the colon.
6. Amazing Antioxidant Content
Apples are rich in antioxidants phyto-nutrients, flavonoids and polyphenols. The important flavonoids in apples are quercetin, epicatechin, and procyanidin B2. The amalgamation of all these antioxidants ensures a healthy functioning of our body and protection against cancer by lowering the oxidant pressure on our cells.
7. Prevention Against Free Radical Damage!
Apples are also good in tartaric acid that gives tart flavor to them. These compounds help body protect from deleterious effects of free radicals.
8. The Potassium Effect!
Potassium is another nutrient that increases the health benefits of apples with 195mg found inside a medium apple. Potassium is an essential mineral promoting a hearty heart health! It is an important component required by our cells and in our body fluid that helps stabilize heart rates and blood pressure by counterbalancing effects of sodium.
Delicious Juice, Overwhelming Benefits!
Juicing apples is an easy way to add nutrition to your diet. Apples have a great taste that is loved by kids and adults, as they are an inexpensive from other fruits, it makes them good choice for fruit juicing.
- Apple juice can ease arthritis and rheumatism.
- Apple juice flushes out the kidneys and liver and is low in calories.
- Juicing apples is an extremely efficient way of obtaining large quantities of nutrients in the form that the body is most able to use.
- Apple juice allows the body to be flooded with full of minerals, vitamins and enzymes.
- Apple juice is loaded with phytonutrients and antioxidants that help to detoxify the body from harmful substances.
- Fresh Apple juice is an effective sweetener for vegetable juices that may not taste good on its own like, adding an apple juice to a carrot-spinach drink, makes it a lot more palatable, and also you get the nutrition from the apples.
Possible Ways To Enjoy Apples
When apples are in season, they are best eaten raw, right out of your hand. Cored and diced, they are a good addition to fruit salads and toppings for ice cream sundaes.
For savory preparations, chopped unpeeled apples can be added to bread stuffing for poultry. Apple slices are delicious when fried in butter to accompany a roast duck or roast.
Apples also go great in baked desserts! Chopped apples make up the filling for pies, cobblers and crisps. Cooked into a sauce they are used in spiced cakes and cookies. They are also baked whole, cored, in sugar syrup and served with cream.
The commercial uses of apples are many – American apple orchards produce 100 varieties for commercial use as apple sauces, juices, jellies, butters and dried apples. Some companies make apple juice concentrates to sell to consumers who use them to replace white sugar in baking.
Fancy some apple juice?In addition to mass-produced juices and ciders, apples are the source of well-known liquors like apple jack and the French calvados.
Possible Health Concerns Of Apples
The seeds of apple are inedible. Consuming those even by mistake can lead to hazardous consequences. The seeds consist of cyanide which can prove to be fatal if present in the body in large quantities. While eating apples be careful not to swallow the seeds.
Furthermore, the component of ‘pectin’ present in apples has been documented to decrease digestion time, causing abdominal cramping and diarrhea if present in significant amounts in the body.