Tag Archives: apples

20 Dec

Apple Nutrition Facts – Why an Apple a Day Keeps the Doctor Away

Apple Nutrition Facts

What everyone knows about apples is that they are a sweet fruit that will keep you regular and has great tasting juice. True, it’s all those things, but it has a lot more nutrition than most of us know.

Apples have bee known to help asthmatics get less attacks, and when they do happen, they are less severe. Apples are known to stimulate appetite in people who don’t often feel hungry. They are the chief ingredient in apple cider vinegar, a home remedy that is a great help for respiratory illness, general energy and mild stomach conditions.

They have also been known to reduce the incidence of strokes because they prevent thickening of the artery walls. They help with type 2 diabetes. They contain flavanoids which inhibit cancerous cells and they are known to reduce the severity of prostrate cancer.

A large glass of freshly squeezed apple juice a day will help you to reduce the effects of cholesterol. In short, they are packed with different nutrients and each nutrient in an apple is beneficial to your body (here you can find a complete list of apple juice health benefits as well as their explanations).

Apple Nutrition Facts

The main nutrients that you will find in an apple are numerous; look at the list below to see just how much you would be doing for your health if you consumed apples regularly. This is based on a regular sized apple that’s ripe and fresh and still has the skin on.

Apple Nutrition Facts

Betaine 0,1 mg
Calcium 6 mg
Calories 52 Calories
Carbohydrate 13,8 g
Carotene-ß 27 mcg
Choline 3,4 mg
Dietary Fiber 2,4 g
Fluoride 3,3 mcg
Folate 3 mcg
Iron 0,1 mg
Lutein-zeaxanthin 29 mcg
Magnesium 5 mg
Niacine 0,1 mg
Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity (ORAC) 5900 µ mol TE
Pantothenic Acid 0,1 mg
Phosphorus 11 mg
Phytonutrients 67 mcg
Potassium 107 mg
Protein 0,3 g
Pyridoxine Vit. B6 0,041 mg
Selenium 1 mcg
Sugar 10,4 g
Total Fat 0,2 g
Vitamin A 54 IU
Vitamin C 4,6 mg
Vitamin E 0,2 mg
Vitamin K 2,2 mcg
Water 85,6 g

If you want to get the full benefits of an apple, don’t peel away the skin as it contains many of the nutrients listed here; more than half of the vitamin C that you will be getting, for instance, sits just below the skin.

You’ll notice that there are some elements that are common in almost everything that we eat that are not present in apples: they don’t have any kind of fat, they don’t contain sodium and they don’t have cholesterol either.

They are also one of the richest sources of plant based anti-oxidants. In fact, they are not far from the avocado, another wonder fruit that people had for a long time ignored because it was believed to contain unhealthy fats.

If you check the list, you’ll see that when it comes to fibre, it says plenty. That’s why people who eat apples regularly will move bowels regularly too. The fibre provides the traction that’s needed to push stool out of the colon. If you are constipated, a raw apple is one of the easiest and best ways to help you get bowel movements.

You might be wondering which of all these nutrients is most beneficial to the body. There are 4 of them:

Carbohydrates are vital for proper body function, and especially plant based carbs. They are fuel for the body and because they come in the form of a fruit, you can be sure that you are not consuming carbs as you would otherwise consume with other foods.

Calcium is the stuff from which bones are formed, and it’s also an important component in maintaining proper cell turgidity. If your cells have a calcium imbalance, you will suffer dehydration – calcium makes the cells turgid enough so that the cell membranes maintain just enough water.

Iron is vital as well, because it is one of the main components of blood and it is necessary for blood circulation. If you have too little iron, you will be anaemic.

Potassium is also vital for healthy cells, and healthy cells mean a healthy body.

It’s easy to give your body all these things simply by making sure that every day, you eat an apple. You can make apple fruit juice a part of your morning regimen, and then carry an apple with you as you leave the house to munch on later. In fact, it’s somehow the only fruit that you can eat in public without people raising an eyebrow :).

18 Dec

Apple Juice Side Effects: Is there such a thing as too much apple juice?

Most of us love apple juice and can take plenty of it, but is there such a thing as too much apple juice? Apples are juiced for their nutritional value and also because they are such a relaxing calming drink, but what would happen if someone took too much apple juice?

It different from person to person; some people will react to some of the components found in apples. In fact, some people get reactions from eating certain kinds of apples or drinking their juice.

Drinking Large Quantities Of Apples Juice – Apple Juice Diets Side Effects

The most common reaction is usually diarrhoea, especially if you drink large quantities of apple juice at once. There are other reported side effects although these happen if someone is on too much apple juice. There are some diets that recommend that you take nothing but apple juice and these side effects will be experienced by the people on these kinds of diets.

These will include a sudden surge of pimples – unsightly zits that will stay with you until you get off the apple juice diet. These people will usually complain that they are tired, dizzy, that they have headaches, they may complain of constipation and usually, they eventually develop hypoglycaemia or low blood sugar. This may lead to fainting, heart arrhythmias, hunger, sometimes vomiting and of course weight loss.

Some people who take nothing but apple juice will also eventually develop a kind of body odour that’s unpleasant as well as bad breath.

It’s hard to say if these side effects are brought on by the apple juice itself or from the body lacking a more balanced diet. If you want to go on a diet like this (some people say that its good for cleansing the blood), make sure that you don’t do it for more than a day or two; you cannot sustain your body well enough with just apple juice no matter how much of it you take every day.

Apple juice side effects

Apple Juice Recommended Dosage?

Is there a recommended dosage? Not one that’s written in stone, but you can take a glass of apple juice with each meal every day without suffering any negative effects. Make sure that you juice only sweet apples too as tart ones can lead to heart burns and an acidic feeling in the stomach.

Sometimes, when you first get to juicing apples, it can get really exciting and you might be tempted to drink lots of it at once; this will more than likely lead to a bout of diarrhoea. Take a glass or two and keep the rest chilled for later.

There is really nothing else that you should be worried about when it comes to apple juice. If you drink apple juice and start to feel nauseous or get diarrhoea, the best cure for this is water – drink as much of it as you can to flush out anything in the apple juice that you may be reacting to. If you really want to use it as a detox, do it under the supervision of a nutritionist – they will tell you how you can keep your body well balanced during the detox period.

18 Dec

The Health Benefits of Apple Juice

Red apples

It’s hard to find a fruit in nature that’s healthier than the apple. In fact, even when you take it in the form of apple juice, there are lots of health benefits you get whether you are a child or an adult. The apple is used for alcoholic products too, and the best thing about it is that having all those health benefits, its one of the cheapest fruits that you can find.

Apple Juice and Your Health

Apple juice contains lots of different nutrients that are necessary in the body for optimum health. Almost all types of apples contain vitamin C which helps your body fight disease. One of the diseases that apples will help you fight, although rare today, is scurvy. Although there is still no solid scientific evidence, vitamin C has also been said to help fight off colds.

Health Benefits Of Apple Juice

Apple juice also contains antioxidants which are the body’s armor against disease, both for prevention and cure. When you are under a rigorous exercise regimen, apple juice will help you boost energy levels as well as help muscles which might tear due to strain. Exercising also forces the body to produce oxidants, as much as 10 times more than when your body is at rest. These lead to more fatigue than usual and a glass of apple juice will help you to clear these out of your system. Antioxidants have also been shown to fight off certain kinds of cancers and if consumed in moderation. It’s a great weight loss booster as well and helps to reduce cholesterol.

Apple Juice for Alzheimer’s

A study in 2009 showed that drinking apple juice regularly as one grew older helps to delay the onset of dementia, a condition which eventually leads to Alzheimer’s disease. In the same study, mice that were fed regularly with apple juice showed improved brain function and they were better able to cope with orientation, one of the most debilitating conditions that comes along with Alzheimer’s. It also showed that apple juice slowed ageing of the brain and ultimately, the brain remains in good function for a longer time (for more foods that can slow down the aging process you can visit anti aging nutrition).

Apples for apple juice

Other Nutrients in Apple Juice and Their Benefits

Apples are one of the greatest sources of fiber. In fact, most sources of fiber are not sweet, but with apples, you get to enjoy the fruit as well as help your digestion.

Apple juice is also rich in iron, but you shouldn’t take too much of it as the antioxidants in it will bind the iron and it wont be absorbed into your blood stream. This of course will lead to iron deficiencies and eventually diseases like anemia.

The juice is also an antioxidant, and people who smoke or suffer breathing problems should take it to help detoxify and therefore clean the lungs for easier breathing.

Although apple juice contains a lot of the nutrients that are needed for daily function, it has no calories that can make you gain weight, even when you add artificial sweeteners to it.

The benefits go on and on. Apple juice is excellent for people suffering from anemia, stomach disorders, rheumatism, arteriosclerosis, diabetes, and obesity. It also helps prevent liver and kidney disease, formation of uric acid and chronic colitis. It will detoxify even heavy metals like radionuclide from the body.

It also helps fight off dysentery, respiratory diseases and laryngitis. It has calcium which helps strengthen bones especially in pregnant women and children.

Benefits of cloudy apples juice

Cloudy Apple Juice

This is actually the healthiest form of apple juice. When you buy apple juice from the store, it’s usually clear and this is because of the continuous filtration that has been done to it. Filtration removes 2 major ingredients: pectin and starch. It will also remove some of the natural fibre and vitamin C. These are some of the most beneficial elements in apple juice, so a store bought apple juice will not give you full health value.

In the US, unfiltered apple juice comes in the form of apple cider and can be bought in stores. You should be aware though, that in the UK, apple cider is actually an alcoholic drink made of apple juice and alcohol.

Side Effects of Apple Juice

The FDA, after testing apples and apple juice, says that there are few if any side effects. The only times you may have problems is if you take too much of it at once or if you go on an apple juice diet for detox without consuming anything else. All ingredients in apples and apple juice have a high level of tolerance before they actually show up in the blood to cause any negative side effects.

Of course, they can confidently tell you that “an apple a day keeps the doctor away!”

18 Dec

A Common Apple Juice Recipe

This is one of the recipes that are easy to make at home if you can get yourself some good apples from the grocery store. Since apple juice oxidizes quickly, you are advised to make it fast. There are just a few steps to it, but it can be time consuming to prepare and clean everything so set aside some time to get through this apple juice recipe.

Apple Juice Recipe Instructions

Step 1:

Choose some fresh and sweet apples – you can find out here what are the best apples for apple juice; they are usually available in most grocery stores. If you are after a high dosage of vitamin C, go for the Golden Noble, Reinette, Cox’s or Johnathans.

Step 2:

Wash the apples clean in mildly soapy water, cut them into pieces that will fit into your juicer and remove the seeds.

Step 3:

Put your apples through the juicer.

Step 4:

Add sweetener and citric acid into the juice. The sweetener will give the juice some sweetness while the citric acid acts as a preservative. Put in the fridge to chill to your desired temperature and its ready to drink.

Apple Juice Recipe

15 Dec

The Best Apples for Making Apple Juice

Apple Juice

There is rarely a drink more refreshing that a glassful of chilled, fresh apple juice, and if you want to avoid everything that comes with bottled apple juices (chemicals and additives), its easy to make your own juice if you know the right kind of apples and when they are ripe enough to give you a sweet juice.

What Are The Best Kind Of Apples To Make Apple Juice?

Let’s start with the best kind of apples to make apple juice. The first consideration here is just how much juice you can get out of each apple. There are varieties that are not that juicy – you need to use more than 3 or 4 to get a glassful of juice. The amount of juice that you get out of an apple, in fact any fruit, is determined largely by the kind of juicer that you use. There are some juicers in the market that don’t squeeze the pulp dry, and this means that a lot of your juice goes into the bin with the pulp. Make sure to buy a juicer that’s known for leaving behind pulp that’s as dry s possible.

There are some apple varieties that come recommended for a glass of juice that will have no tartness in it at all. Top is Mackintosh apples. Red Delicious are also very a sweet variety and you are guaranteed to a great juice out of them. Gala, Fuji and Rome are also great for making a sweet apple juice, as well as Honey Crisp and Pink Lady. The secret here is to get hold of as many of these sweet varieties as you can and then blend them together. If you get one any of the four that are mentioned here, you will not need to add any sugar to your apple juice at all. The Fuji and Gala variety are especially great for juicing because they have a great flavor.

Best Apples for Juicing

How Do You Know If Apples Are Ripe Enough For Making Juice?

Color is not the best way to tell if an apple is ripe since apple come in so many different colors depending on the variety. They should be firm and crisp – that’s if you’re buying them at the store and there is really nothing else you can go by. If you plant your own apples, you’ll know when they start to drop from the tree themselves. Don’t wait for many to drop – a bruised apple will rot very quickly. Apples on trees ripen from the inside out and so that means that you will pick from the outwards in as well.

If you are lucky enough to be able to buy apples directly from a farm, the farmer should tell you his ripest lot as those will give you the best apples for juicing. He will usually know by counting the number of days since they started to flower and since he knows the varieties that he is growing, he knows exactly how long it takes for each to be ripe enough to make a good juice.

Some Health Benefits Of Apple Juice

Why exactly would you be chasing after a great glass of chilled apple juice? It’s not just for the great taste, but apples, whether raw, juiced or cooked have numerous health benefits. Let’s have a look at some of them here so that the next time you gulp down that glass of pure delight, you’ll know just what its doing for your body.

1. They have massive amounts of vitamin C, a crucial vitamin for keeping the body healthy and fighting off disease.

2. Apples are full of fiber especially when eaten raw. They will stop you from constipating.

3. They have proved to be of benefit for people suffering with Alzheimer’s.

4. They are a great source of iron, one of the major components of human blood.

5. They are great for weight loss. They are filling and if you eat one each time you feel hungry, you’ll be inclined to eat less.

6. They are also great for asthma and other respiratory related conditions. In fact, apple cider vinegar is a great cure for sinuses.

There are many other benefits of apples and apple juice, and you will find these are just a few of them. Make sure that apples are a part of your daily diet, whether in juice form, raw or cooked.

15 Dec

A Closer Look at the Apple: Its History, Traditional Uses & Interesting Facts

Let’s not begin this article with the everyday cliché that an apple a day keeps the doctor away, but we’ve already said it anyway so let’s go ahead and look at just why apples are so trusted; where did they come from, how were they used in the past? We’ll also have a look at some fun and interesting folklore about apples.

Where Do Apples Come From?

The origin of the apple seems to go farther back than the Garden of Eden; it can be traced to somewhere in the Middle East or Asia Minor, and that was as far back as 8000 BC. Back then, because the region was dry and people hardly settled in one place, their wanderings eventually brought them to a tree that had little, fruits – apples – that were not as sweet as the apple we know today but still proved to be highly nutritious. Eventually, as these nomadic groups started to settle along rivers, especially the Tigris, the Nile and the Indus, they brought the seed along with them as part of their cultivated plants.

Expeditions started soon after that because people were more settled and could travel for leisure, and soon the apple was on its way to the “civilized” world. The apple went as far as Eastern Europe and it was actually treated as a sign of prosperity. In the more settled communities, apple groves were planted simply to impress and of course were harvested for their nutritive value.

Before long, the apple reached Rome. Alexander the Great, in one of his conquering missions to Asia Minor came across the dwarf apple and took it back with him to Rome. In true Roman ingenuity, the Romans were soon able to graft it and plant it under different conditions so that they could get bigger and better tasting apples.

Because the Romans eventually traveled far in search of lands to conquer, you can imagine that the apple was not left behind. It was almost the only fruit that they deemed to provide ultimate nutrition back then, and they preserved it for their travels and thus got it other lands far and away.

History has it that the Romans eventually landed the apple in England as they fought to conquer it, and it thrived in the conditions there. The English realized the value of this fruit and they cultivated it en masse – it was almost like a national fruit.

The spread was viral after that. As the English traveled to conquer new lands themselves, they took the apple along with them. Because it’s a rather sensitive plant, it took a lot of experimenting to know which species grew best in different climates.

How Did Apples Come To America?

To get to America, the apple came with immigrants, people who were escaping the land ownership system in England for better fortunes in America. Again, there they found that it could thrive. Botanists worked to make it better and better by mixing different species, growing them under different conditions once more, and eventually they ended up with the more than 7500 species of apples that we have today.

Apple History and Johnny AppleseedJohnny Appleseed

A lot of apple growing in America is credited to the legend Johnny Appleseed. He grew thousands of different kinds of apple trees, trying to find which were best suited to different climates. Wherever he traveled, he would carry along apple seeds so that he could teach people how to plant them. In addition to this, he taught them the health benefits that came with eating apples every day as well as how to store them so that when they were out of season, they would still have apples to eat. Because of him, apples became a household name in America.

Traditional Uses Of Apples And It Benefits

The apple’s traditional use back then was not as varied as it is today; apples were mainly eaten raw or stored in cider or wine to preserve. They were believed to keep away illness if eaten regularly, and they were also trusted as a major cure for constipation – it was believed that if you ate apples every day, you’d be as regular as clockwork.

Interesting Facts About Apples

The apple has a lot of folk lore attached to it; did you know that in ancient Greece, for a man to propose marriage to a woman he had to toss her an apple and she had to catch it to accept? Did you also know that when the apple came to Europe and became so popular, all other fruits were called “apple” for some time? In Germany, it was believed that if a man ate an apple that he had rolled around in the sweat of a woman he loved, she would love him back.

The most curious folklore might have been with the English; they believed that if they hung an apple on a tree along with bread soaked in cider, robins would come and there would be lots of fertility in the village, from animals to plants to women. On the very same note, an apple hanging from a tree would chase away evil spirits; in fact, a baby born with an apple-shaped birthmark would have the mark rubbed with an apple to remove it. Of course you need to see it to believe it.

15 Dec

How To Grow Apples At Home

Apple tree

If you really want to make a 100% your own apple juice then you need to start by planting some apple trees. This is a short guide that will tell you the basics of planting and growing apples in your own garden.

Apples From Your Backyard

There is nothing like a freshly picked apple from your garden, and despite the common belief that they are hard plants to grow, all you need to master is a few basics and you will soon have a tree or even a whole orchard of them that will give you fruit season after season without fail. Like any other fruit tree, you need to know the best climate , the best species, and when best to plant it so that it can thrive and be ready to fruit just on time. Those are the things that we are going to explore in this article.

The Best Climate For Apples

Let’s first have a look at where apples grow best. There is no standard climate for apples because there are so many different varieties, and most of them were developed to thrive in particular climates. For the sake of this article, lets assume that you want to grow an apple tree in the temperate zone where you get the 4 seasons in a year; winter, spring, summer and autumn.

Apples will thrive well in areas that have moderately cold winters and mildly hot summers. Apples are naturally sun fruits if you look at their history and origins, but because of the adaptations that they have acquired as they have been bred, there are many species now that need a hibernation period. During winter, they prepare for new growth when it will be hotter. If you live in a place that has extremely cold winters, you may find that your apple trees are dwarfed; its because it gets so cold that some cell activity dies during the cold season, so that when its hot, they tree really doesn’t have much to grow on.

In the summer, a minimum of 6 hours of sunshine is enough. Lately, temperate climates are getting hotter and hotter summers and these may affect the apple tree as it has to struggle to retain enough water for proper cell circulation, budding and fruiting. If you are experiencing an extremely hot summer, here is something that you can do to make sure that your apple tree has enough water to sustain itself.

Apples In Hot Summer

Get some old, tall bottles, like wine bottles and fill them with water. Dig some holes around your tree, tip over the bottles and leave about ¾ of them up in the air so that you can see the water as it is absorbed by the soil around the tree. The number of bottles that you will need will depend on how big your trees is and how hot the weather is, and you can add more if you notice that the soil around the tree is drinking up the water very fast. Each time you notice that a bottle is empty, fill it again and tip it into the hole. It’s a great way to keep your apple tree well watered and save water at the same time (compare it to using a hose or a sprinkler system). It also ensures that the tree absorbs water on demand.

When To Plant Apple Trees?

The best season to plant an apple tree is in early spring, although this will vary depending on the climate where you live and the species that you are planting. In some places, and with some species, it’s best to plant in early winter. To be sure, do some research on the type of apple tree that you want to plant and find out when it should be planted.

How To Grow Apples At Home

Apples grow pretty fast, but they will slow down as they age – they can live to be as old as 200 years. The trees need a lot of water right after planting to make sure that they root firmly in the soil and that they get enough nutrition. You can add some compost or manure to make sure that the soil is healthy.

Apple Tree Pruning

You’ll also need to prune regularly to allow for new growth and new buds. Since this is not the place to go into such detail when it comes to growing apples – look for apple pruning guides on the Internet.

How Do You Know If Apples Are Ripe?

Most apple species will ripen enough for harvest when the weather turns warmer. Let them get ready enough to fall freely from the tree so that you don’t get tart apples. Once you notice that they’re falling, use the ones that you pick up to compare to the ones still on the tree and you can pick the ones that look like the fallen one; not all of them will ripen at the same time.