All information about apple fruit

Apple fruit Nutrition facts

Delicious and crunchy, apple fruit are one of the most popular and favorite produces that health-conscious people who firmly believe in the concept of “health is wealth.” This wonderful fruit indeed is packed with rich phytonutrients that in the real sense indispensable for optimal health and wellness.

Certain proven antioxidants in apples have health promoting and disease prevention properties, and thereby, truly justifying the adage, “an apple a day keeps the doctor away.”

Scientific name: Malus domestica.

Apples are obtained from a medium-sized tree belonging to the Rosaceae family. The wild apple tree is thought to have originated in the mineral-rich mountain ranges of Kazakhstan. Today, its cultivation is fostered in many parts of the world, including the US, as a major commercial crop.

Apple fruit is oval or pear in shape. Its outer peel comes in different hues and colors depending upon the cultivar type. Internally, its crispy, juicy pulp is off-white to cream and features a mix of mildly sweet and tart flavor. Its seeds are bitter in taste, and therefore, inedible.

Hundreds of varieties of apples used for either table or dessert and cooking purposes are grown in the US and worldwide. Cooking apples tend to be larger, crispier and, tarter than dessert types.

Health benefits of Apple fruit

Delicious and crunchy apple fruit is notable for its impressive list of phtytonutrients, and antioxidants. Studies suggest that its components are essential for optimal growth, development, and overall wellness.

Apples are low in calories; 100 g of fresh fruit slices provide just 50 calories. They, however, contain no saturated fats or cholesterol. Nonetheless, the fruit is rich in dietary fiber, which helps prevent absorption of dietary-LDL or bad cholesterol in the gut. The fiber also saves the colon mucous membrane from exposure to toxic substances by binding to cancer-causing chemicals inside the colon.

Apples are rich in antioxidant phytonutrients flavonoids and polyphenolics. The total measured antioxidant strength (ORAC value) of 100 g apple fruit is 5900 TE. Some of the important flavonoids in apples are quercetin, epicatechin, and procyanidin B2.

Additionally, they are also good in tartaric acid that gives tart flavor to them. Altogether, these compounds help the body protect from harmful effects of free radicals.

Apple fruit contains good quantities of vitamin-C and β-carotene. Vitamin C is a powerful natural antioxidant. Consumption of foods rich in vitamin-C helps the body develop resistance against infectious agents and scavenge harmful, pro-inflammatory free radicals from the body.

Further, apple fruit is an ideal source of B-complex vitamins such as riboflavin, thiamin, and pyridoxine (vitamin B-6). Together, these vitamins help as co-factors for enzymes in metabolism as well as in various synthetic functions inside the human body.

Apples also carry small quantities of minerals like potassium, phosphorus, and calcium. Potassium is an important component of cell and body fluids that helps controlling heart rate and blood pressure; thus, counters the bad influences of sodium.

See the table below for in depth analysis of nutrients:

Apple fruit (Malus domestica), Fresh,

Nutrition value per 100 g, ORAC value-5900

(Source: USDA National Nutrient data base)

Principle Nutrient Value % of RDA Energy 52 Kcal 2.5% Carbohydrates 13.81 g 11% Protein 0.26 g 0.5% Total Fat 0.17 g 0.5% Cholesterol 0 mg 0% Dietary Fiber 2.40 g 6% Vitamins Folates 3 Вµg 1% Niacin 0.091 mg 1% Pantothenic acid 0.061 mg 1% Pyridoxine 0.041 mg 3% Riboflavin 0.026 mg 2% Thiamin 0.017 mg 1% Vitamin A 54 IU 2% Vitamin C 4.6 mg 8% Vitamin E 0.18 mg 1% Vitamin K 2.2 Вµg 2% Electrolytes Sodium 1 mg 0% Potassium 107 mg 2% Minerals Calcium 6 mg 0.6% Iron 0.12 mg 1% Magnesium 5 mg 1% Phosphorus 11 mg 2% Zinc 0.04 mg 0% Phyto-nutrients Carotene-Гџ 27 Вµg — Crypto-xanthin-Гџ 11 Вµg — Lutein-zeaxanthin 29 Вµg —

Selection and Storage

Keep fresh apples at room temperature for few days and in the refrigerator for up to two to three weeks. Wash them in clean, running cold water before use.

Preparation and Serving Tips

Wash apples thoroughly in the running water to remove any surface dust, insecticide/fungicide sprays. Trim off its stem-end using a paring knife, and cut the fruit into halves. Remove centrally placed, tiny, bitter seeds. Slice the fruit into desirable cubes or slices.

Apple pie.
Photo by: kanko

Here are some serving tips:

Eat apple fruit «as it is» along with its peel to get maximum health-benefits.

Sliced apple turns brown (enzymatic brownish discoloration) on exposure to air due to conversion in iron form from ferrous oxide to ferric oxide. If you have to serve them sliced, rinse slices in water added with few drops of fresh lemon.

Cloudy as well as clear apple juice is a healthy alternative drink with dinner.

Apple fruit is also used in the preparation of fruit jam, pie, and fruit salads.

Safety profile

Good apple fruit produce demands close attention and supervision of crops. According to the environmental working group reports, the apple fruit is one of the heavily pesticide-contaminated produces. The most common pesticides found in apples are organo-phosphorous and organochloride pesticides like Permethrin and DDT. Therefore, it is recommended to wash the fruit thoroughly before use. If possible, buy organic-certified apples. (Medical disclaimer).

≺≺- Back to Fruits from Apple fruit. Visit here for an impressive list of all variety of fruits with complete illustrations of their nutrition facts and health benefits.

Stanford School of Medicine Cancer information Page- Nutrition to Reduce Cancer Risk.

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9 Juicy Facts About Apples

Did you know that apples originally came from the mountains of Kazakhstan?

Cultivated around the world for over 2,000 years, apples are the deliciously crunchy fruit of the apple tree.

From the moment they were first discovered they’ve been enjoyed by people every day in an amazingly large variety of forms.

What is it about apples though, that has led to their almost legendary status in the fruit bowl?

Let’s take a bite into some of the juiciest facts about apples.

An apple a day keeps the doctor away.

We’ve all heard the age-old English proverb, but did you know that there’s actually quite a bit of truth to it?

There are a large number of health benefits that can be obtained from apples.

The acids found in apples help fight against gout and indigestion. These acids also help the fruit become digested faster, as well as assisting in digesting any other food you may eat at the same time.

Another form of apple homeopathy is to eat a ripe sour apple just before going to bed to cure constipation.

This actually leads to another old saying – To eat an apple going to bed will make the doctor beg his bread!

Eve picked a forbidden fruit, but it wasn’t an apple.

Believe it or not, it wasn’t actually an apple that Eve picked from the Tree of Knowledge in the Old Testament’s Book of Genesis.

In the original story, the fruit which Eve picks is not actually made clear and is just referred to as a fruit.

There have been a number of suggestions over the centuries as to what this fruit was, ranging from figs to olives, grapes to bananas.

It wasn’t until around the 12 th century that apples started to be referred to as the forbidden fruit.

Apples are things of myths and legends.

Apples have been around for so long that many cultures in Europe have their own myths and legends involving them.

In the epic Greek poem the Iliad, a golden apple plays a key role in a series of events that eventually led to the downfall of Troy.

In Norse mythology, the goddess of youth, Idun, gave golden apples to the gods to keep them youthful until the end of the world.

There is a myth relating to this where Loki, a trickster god, kidnaps Idun and the rest of the gods begin to quickly age.

If you plant the seeds from an apple, it will grow into a new variety.

Apples have a genetic characteristic called heterozygosity, which means that any new tree grown from the seeds of an apple will grow into a new variety.

As a direct result of this, there are now thousands of known varieties of apples today.

While this is great in terms of the species’ evolution and its ability to adapt and survive to new environments, it does make apple cultivation much more difficult.

Instead of planting new apple trees by seed, a technique called grafting is necessary.

This technique fuses a part of an already existing plant of the desired variety to the roots of a much tougher and more durable variant that has been grown by seed.

If done successfully, the new grafted seedling will then grow the desired apples.

There are thousands of varieties of apples.

There are more than 7,500 known varieties of apples, and that’s just counting the ones we bother examining.

These varieties fall into three general categories: cider, cooking, and dessert.

The apples are categorized mainly on aspects such as size, color, crispiness, aroma, and taste, as well as bitterness.

More bitter apples are used for apple cider and are nearly inedible raw.

Dessert apples, such as those used in apple pie are commonly enjoyed fresh and raw as well.

Apples originally came from Kazakhstan.

Most of you may know Kazakhstan thanks to the hit 2006 mockumentary Borat.

Something that Borat fails to mention, however, is that Kazakhstan is actually the original source of apples.

DNA analysis of modern varieties of apples has found that they originate from a wild variety known as Malus sieversii, which can still be found thriving in the mountains of Kazakhstan.

Over 66 million tons of apples are produced every year.

Across the globe, there are more than 66 million tons of apples produced annually.

The largest producer of apples by a vast majority in China, with a whopping 46 million tons.

The USA, on the other hand, is actually the third-largest producer.

Of the American apples produced, only half are consumed fresh. The rest of the crop is used for making juice, vinegar, jelly, and applesauce, among other things.

The European crop of apples though, has a larger percentage of the fruit go towards cider-making.

Cider has been brewed for over 2,000 years.

In around 55BC when the Romans invaded England they discovered that cider production was already well underway, and had been enjoyed by locals for some time.

This means that apples migrated all the way from Kazakhstan to England, some 3,000 miles (5,000 kilometers), before the technique of fermenting and distilling was perfected.

This method has been honed over the years, and by the late 1500s, there were more than 65 different breeds of apples cultivated specifically for cider production.

There’s a US folk hero called Johnny Appleseed who spread apples all over the USA.

John Chapman, otherwise known as Johnny Appleseed was said to believe that the method of cultivating apples by grafting was wicked.

He was absolutely certain that the only way to grow good apples was to sow them by seed.

The story goes that he collected seeds from cider mills in Pennsylvania and proceeded to distribute and sow apple seeds far and wide across huge swathes of the USA.

The apples grown from these seeds weren’t good for eating though, just for creating booze.

So next time you enjoy a crisp glass of apple cider, say cheers to Johnny Appleseed!

Apples have been enjoyed in a whole range of forms for millennia now.

You can bake them, juice them, ferment them, or even just eat them straight off the tree.

As one of the oldest cultivated fruits in the world, they’re probably one of the greatest, and will certainly be enjoyed for a long time to come!

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