Author: Vienna M Doenni, PhD
They say that an apple a day keeps the doctor away. I am currently experiencing my second cold this year, so I did the only logical thing: I bought a bag of apples. Now that I started to religiously eat my daily doctor-deterrent I am wondering what’s so good about them, and if the fuss about apples is based on facts or fairy tales.
What is an apple?
What is an apple composed of? Fibre, water, definitely a lot of sugar and some essential nutrients. Those nutrients are“essential” because we get them through our diet and cannot make them ourselves. Examples are vitamins, minerals or fatty acids. Amongst those, vitamin C has the highest content; eating one apple will provide about 6% of your daily vitamin C requirement. High on the list are also vitamin B6 (3%), B2 (2%) and K (2%) and minerals such as magnesium, potassium, and phosphorus. They are all important, yet lesser to deter the common cold and more for general functions.
What are the apple's superpowers?
In every apple, the most potent supporter for the immune system is allegedly vitamin C. Everyone has heard of it, half the world takes supplements, but what does vitamin C actually do for you? If you put vitamin C on a dish containing a colony of bacteria they will effectively stop growing – and likely viruses are not too comfortable in its proximity. Besides that vitamin C is also an immunostimulant, anti-inflammatory and has antiviral and antibacterial properties. We think that antioxidative properties play a big part in all of vitamin C’s (and thus apple’s) immune functions. Antioxidants catch free radical oxygen species before they can damage our DNA and potentially cause damage to our body or cancerous mutations. Those radical oxygen species are produced by virtually everything we do, eat, drink, exercise or even sleep, but during inflammation, our body uses them to attack bacteria and to kill infected cells. Vitamin C makes sure that our body does not go overboard on these tasks.
Which apple is the best?
Colour matters – green apples are lower in sugar, higher in fiber and contain more vitamins and minerals than red apples. The skin of an apple contains 1/5th of the apple's vitamin content, so it is best not to remove it. However, the best apple is likely an orange, which has about 19 times more vitamin C than an apple.
In conclusion, your grandmother was right, apples are good for you and you should eat green ones and not peel them. And all the sugar makes them quite delicious! But when it comes down to apples and oranges, the apple really isn’t all that special.