What food or foods do you associate with the fall or autumn? One food that immediately comes to my mind is apples.
I have many wonderful childhood memories associated with apples as there was an apple orchard on my parent’s dairy farm. The orchard would be considered small by today’s standards but it introduced me to about 11 of the 2,500 estimated varieties of apples found in the United States. Only 100 varieties, however, are now grown commercially.
If you can name or have eaten more than two varieties, you are ahead of most people. The five most popular apples are Golden Delicious, Granny Smith, Gala, Fuji and Red Delicious.
My grandmother, who always used her apron to hold the apples she had picked, frequently told me that an apple a day would keep the doctor away. Now research is proving that she may have been right!
Apples contain several antioxidants including quercetin, catechin, phlordzin and chlorogenic acid. As difficult as those may be to say, they appear to lower the bad LDL cholesterol and raise the good HDL cholesterol. Other benefits that they provide include protecting you from breast and colon cancers, preventing kidney stones and fighting inflammation.
Pectin, a soluble dietary fiber, is another ingredient in apples. It helps to lower cholesterol and sugar in the blood. There is also insoluble fiber in apples that helps with regularity.
Apples also provide vitamin C, another antioxidant that protects your cells from damage and keeps your blood vessels healthy.
Eat the apple skin! That is where half of the vitamin C content of apples is found. Both the skin and the flesh contain insoluble fiber.
The great thing about apples is that they are a natural convenience food. They are easy to take with you to bite into when you need a quick low calorie snack. Bet you didn’t realize that apples are also a natural mouth freshener while massaging your gums and cleaning your teeth.
Enjoy the many taste sensations of eating apples whether they are sweet, tart, soft, crisp, crunchy, raw or cooked. Try some of these other varieties: Jonagold, Braeburn, McIntosh, Pink Lady and Cortland. Or one of the remaining 90 kinds you will find in various regions of the United States. My personal favorites are Honey Crisp, Ida Red and Empire.
