Why eating apples keeps the doctor away

Regular eating of apples
prevents some diseases Apple is a popular fruit loved by many all over the world. Though it is mostly eaten, because of its sweet taste, Sade Oguntola writes that apples can also help to keep some diseases at bay.

HISTORICALLY apples have played an important role in maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Remember the saying: An apple a day keeps the doctor away. Parents have passed this on to their children for generations and medical science has proven this truth. From portrayal of the manifold health benefits of apples, researchers are now going one step further by saying “an apple a day might keep the cancer at bay.”

Traditional advice on eating apple peel was based mainly on its fiber content, with the peel packing about 75 per cent of the dietary fibre in an apple. More recently, however, scientists in the Department of Food Science at Cornell University said that the peel of apples contain most of the beneficial phytochemicals believed to be responsible for the apple-a-day-keeps-the-doctor-away effect.

Dr. Rui Hai Liu and his research team at Cornell looked at the chemical composition of apples and identified a group of phytochemicals that are more abundant in the peel, which appeared to kill or inhibit the growth of at least three different types of human cancer cells: colon, breast and liver.
In the study, recently published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, researchers processed 230 pounds of apples and extracted the chemical contents of the apple peels and also identified 12 compounds, called triterpenoids, which inhibited the growth of cancer cells or even killed them.

The average phenolic content of an apple ranges from 110 milligrammes to 347 milligrammes per 100 grammes of fresh apple. Apples are also high in another group of healthful compounds known as flavonoids.

“We found that several compounds in apple peel that have potent anti-proliferative activities against human liver, colon and breast cancer cells, and this may be partially responsible for the anti-cancer activities of whole apples,” said Rui Hai Liu, an associate professor of food science.

“We believe that a recommendation that consumers eat five to twelve servings of a wide variety of fruits and vegetables daily is appropriate to reduce the risks of chronic diseases, including cancer, and to meet nutrient requirements for optimum health,” Liu said.

Why is it worth it to eat an apple a day? Studies revealed that apples, one of the best-researched fruits, are great in preventing many diseases. Apple intake is especially associated with a reduced risk of the occurrence of all cancers combined, lung cancer, asthma, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases such as hypertension and stroke, thrombotic stroke, coronary and total mortality, symptoms of obstructive pulmonary diseases, as well as ischemic heart disease mortality.

One reason for its health benefits is the phenolic content of apples. Phenols and polyphenols are secondary plant compounds with a wide range of active substances. Generally, they are antioxidants and may prevent degenerative diseases. A main phenolic compound found in apples is quercetin, a polyphenol able to stop human prostate and lung cancer cell growth and lessen the incidence of cardiovascular diseases such as hypertension and stroke. Quercetin has proved to significantly protect neural cells from oxidative stress, which may prevent cognitive diseases such as Alzheimer’s. Besides that, apples may support other aspects of cancer treatments, as it prevents nausea and vomiting.

The cold and influenza season is here. Studies have shown that apples, along with other fruits (quinces and Chinese quinces), are significantly effective in deactivation of influenza viruses.

European researchers discovered that expectant mothers could reduce their unborn children’s risk of asthma by eating more apples while tracking the diets of some 2,000 pregnant women and more than 1,250 of their children for five years. Scientists thought that women who ate more than four apples every week reduced their baby’s chances of being diagnosed with asthma by 53 per cent and a history of wheezing by 37 per cent.

Researchers at UC Davis School of Medicine have also determined that drinking apple juice and eating apples has a beneficial effect on risk factors for heart disease. From the pioneering clinical study that appeared in an edition of Journal of Medicinal Food, Dianne Hyson and her colleagues, said that compounds in apples and apple juice act in much the same way that red wine and tea do to slow down one of the processes that lead to heart disease.

Two other studies from Cornell University showed that drinking apple juice might help your memory because it contains a group of chemicals that could protect the brain from the type of damage that triggers such neurodegenerative diseases as Alzheimer’s and Parkinsonism.

Additional health benefits of apples are derived from their vitamin C and K, potassium and dietary fiber contents. Vitamin C in particular adds to the antioxidant activity of phenols found in apples. Cornell researchers at the university’s New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva, found that vitamin C in apples is only responsible for a small portion of the anti-oxidant activity.

The Cornell researchers found that eating 100 grammes of fresh apple with skins provided the total anti-oxidant activity equal to 1,500 milligrammes of vitamin C. “Eating fruits and vegetables is better than taking a vitamin pill,” Rui Hai Liu, Cornell assistant professor of food science and lead author of the study in the Nature article said.

According to the expert, “what this study shows is that the combination of phytochemicals plays a very important role in anti-oxidant and anti-cancer activity, and the real health benefits may come from a phytochemical mixture.”

Overall, it seems like an apple a day does actually keep the doctor away.