APPLES, THEIR BENEFITS ARE SKIN - DEEP

HEALING POWER FROM APPLE NUTRITION

CAN HELP:

Lower the risk of heart disease

Prevent constipation

Control diabetes

Prevent cancer

  

It's really not surprising that apples have long been considered a symbol of good health and vitality. For one thing, you can keep them handy to eat anywhere, anytime, just by dropping one in your briefcase, backpack, or purse. To complete the package, they come ready - wrapped in their own protective but tasty skin, with all their tart sweetness wrapped within. It's almost as if the head designer said, "Apples are good, so I'll make them easy to eat."

Yet apples are more than just a wholesome snack. Studies suggest that eating apples can help reduce the risk of heart disease. In the laboratory, they have been shown to have stopping power against cancer cells. Evidence is still preliminary, but it appears that having an apple or two a day really can help keep the doctor away.

IT'S ALL IN THE SKIN

Even though many people favor the flesh, much of an apple's healing power resides in the skin, which contains large amounts—about 4 milligrams—of a compound called quercetin. Like vitamin C and beta -carotene, this is an antioxidant compound that can help prevent harmful oxygen molecules from damaging individual cells. Over time, this can help prevent changes in the cells that can lead to camel

Even in the healing world of antioxidants, quercetin is thought to be exceptional. In one study, researchers in Finland compared the amount of various antioxidants people's diets with their risk of heart, disease over a 20 -year period. Men who had the highest daily intake of qucrcetin and other antioxidants (their diets included about a quarter of an apple) had a 20 percent lower risk of heart disease than men who ate the least. The researchers concluded that quercetin was responsible for most of the study's good results.

In a study in the Netherlands, researchers found that men eating an apple a day (along with 2 tablespoons of onions and four cups of tea) had a 32 percent lower risk of heart attack than those who ate fewer apples.

"So eating an apple a day is not a bad idea," says Lawrence H. Kushi, Sc.D., associate professor of public health, nutrition, and epidemiology at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.

Heart disease is not the only major malady to feel quercetin's force. The compound has also shown clout against cancer. Laboratory studies show that it can inhibit the growth of tumors and also help prevent cancer cells from spreading.

"When you subject cells to a carcinogen and then put in the quercetin, you prevent mutation from occurring—you prevent the carcinogen from acting," says Dr. Kush! "Quercetin is one of the things that apples are relatively high in."

FIELDS OF FIBER

Recent discoveries aside, apples are perhaps best known for their fiber. They contain both soluble and insoluble fiber, including pectin. A 5 -ounce apple with the skin has about 3 grams of fiber. "They're a good source," says Chang Lee, Ph.D., professor of food science and technology at Cornell University—New York State Agricultural Experimental Station in Geneva.

Insoluble fiber, found mostly in the skin, is the kind that we used to rail roughage, which has long been recommended for relieving constipation. More is at stake, though, than just comfort. Studies show that a smoothly operating digestive tract can help prevent diverticulosis, a condition in which small pouches form in the large intestine, and also cancer of the colon. Plus, insoluble fiber is filling, which is why apples are such an excellent weight -control food for people who want to lose weight without being hungry all the time.

The soluble fiber in apples, which is the same kind found in oat bran, acts differently from the insoluble kind. Rather than passing through the digestive tract more or less unchanged, soluble fiber forms a gel -like material in the digestive tract that helps lower cholesterol and, with it, the risk of heart disease and stroke.

It's not just the soluble fiber that's so helpful, but a particular type of soluble fiber called pectin. Pectin, which is the same ingredient used to thicken jellies and jams, appears to reduce the amount of cholesterol produced in the liver, providing double protection. "Plus, pectin's ability to form a gel slows digestion, which slows the rise in blood sugar—so it's good for people with diabetes," says Joan Walsh, R.D., Ph.D., foods and nutritional instructor at San Joaquin Delta College in Stockton, California.

An average -size apple contains 0.7 gram of pectin, more than the amount in strawberries and bananas.

Getting the host Look for the brown. "Some varieties of apple, like Granny Smith, are bred to be low in certain protective compounds that make apples brown when you peel them," says Mary Ellen Camire, Ph.D., associate professor and chair of the department of food science and human nutrition at the University of Maine in Orono. Look for varieties that brown easily to reap the most health benefits.

Don't count on apple juice. Although apple juice contains a little iron and potassium, it is no great shakes compared to the whole fruit. By the time apples wind up as juice, they've given up most of their fiber and quercetin.

Of course, if you're choosing between soda and apple juice, by all means choose the juice. But don't use it as a substitute for the real thing.

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