Do they really keep the doctor away?

Apples come in a variety of shapes, colors, and flavors and provide a range of nutrients that can benefit many different aspects of a person’s health.

For example, they may help reduce the risk of cancer, obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and several other conditions.

In this article, learn more about the nutritional content of apples and how they may benefit a person’s health.

During the fall season, apples become a popular fruit. Recipes and storage suggestions are all over the internet. It makes you wonder what the health benefits of apples are, and weather they have the power to keep the doctor away.

Is it Good To Eat an Apple A Day ?

FUN FACT ABOUT THE PHRASE:

For your amusement, the original phrase was first recorded in Wales in 1866, and goes, “Eat an apple on going to bed, and you’ll keep the doctor from earning his bread”.

It later evolved to become, “An apple a day, keeps the doctor away”.

Top Health Benefits

According to Medical News Today, apples are an abundant source of antioxidants, fiber and flavonoids. Their goodness is believed to be beneficial for:

• Neurological Health
• Reducing The Risk Of Stroke
• Lowering Bad Cholesterol
• Decreasing The Risk of Diabetes
• Helps Preventing Breast Cancer
• Fighting Obesity

What are the Health Benefits of Apples ?

Eating Foods With Fiber, Including Apples, Can Aid Digestion

You’ve likely heard that fiber is good for digestion — and what you’ve heard is true!

According to Harvard Health Publishing, both types of fiber (soluble and insoluble, which means it can’t be absorbed in water) are important for digestion. And apples have both types.

Soluble fiber helps slow down digestion, allowing you to feel full, and also slows the digestion of glucose, which helps control your blood sugar. Meanwhile, insoluble fiber can help move food through your system and aid with constipation and regularity. Just be sure eat the apple skin, which contains much of the apple’s insoluble fiber.

Are Apples Good for Your Immune System?

Apples Can Support a Healthy Immune System

Who doesn’t want a stronger immune system going into autumn? 

Apples are great sources of fiber and natural sugars—but you knew that already. What you might not know is that apple skins contain quercetin, a type of plant pigment flavonoid that helps boost your immune system and reduce inflammation.

Apples contain immune-boosting Vitamin C. Research showed that this vitamin plays a key role in helping the immune system function. It is beneficial in strengthening the epithelial (a type of tissue) barrier against pathogens and guarding against environmental oxidative stress, such as pollution to radiation.

Are Apples Good For Weight Loss?

Eating Apples Can Support Healthy Weight Loss

Fresh and crunchy apples are packed with healthy flavonoids and fibres that may help burn belly fat. They are particularly rich in pectin fibre that breaks down slowly. The fibres present in apple promote satiety. If you feel full, you would naturally eat less.

It is best to eat apples in the morning right after you get up or as a snack between meals to get its maximum benefits which include nutrients, weight loss, good skin, great digestion and a healthy body in the long run.

Can eating apples help lower cholesterol?

Apples May Lower High Cholesterol and Blood Pressure

One potential reason for why your apple intake could lower blood pressure is its potassium content as this is helpful in controlling blood pressure.

Another reason apples could be good for your blood pressure is fiber as it slows digestion, you feel fuller longer and thus eat less overall. Plus, that apple you’re eating might also help lower your cholesterol as a result of its pectin content that lowers the “bad cholesterol”.

Apple Cider Vinegar, also known as ACV is a detoxifier that can enable your body to ward off sicknesses and discharge free radicals that wreak devastation on your body regularly, which adds in a roundabout way can lessen the circulatory strain.

It’s even utilized in the control of body weight by helping flush out more fats in the body and giving a person’s digestion the lift it needs. A spoonful or two of vinegar on a daily basis may support your levels of good cholesterol. 

Cautions for Consuming Apples

Appleseeds contain cyanide, which is lethal in high enough doses. However, the amount in one apple core is unlilely to harm an individual. Still, it is advised to avoid chewing or swallowing the seeds to be safe.

Other concerns with apples are related to pesticide sprays used during growing and wax coatings. For this important reason, consuming only organic apples is recommended.

Washing apples well before eating is best if you want to obtain the nutrients in the peel.

Another good way to remove those pesticides is using a fresh fruit and veggie wash. I use one from Norwex and our fruits come out amazingly clean.

Tips for Adding Apples to Your Diet

Apples are an incredibly versatile food. Try some of these ideas to add them yo your daily menu:

• Whole as a snack
• Sliced with cheese
• An ingredient in baked goods
• As applesauce
• Baked with Cinnamon
• Added to smoothies
• A topping for salads
• Grated in coleslaw
• As a cider drink
• Added in oatmeal

Use your imagination to come up with tasty ways to get your apple a day. You can include them in any meal from a quick snack, to an entree, to dessert.

Apples are a nutritious addition to a healthy diet. Eating one each day may not guarantee to keep the doctor away, but it will certainly aid to stack the ods in your favor.

While there are many factors like environment, family history, and age that can affect how long you live, there’s a lot of research to back up the very strong connection between diet and longevity.

A healthy diet paired with a few Superfoods or Secret Nutrients available from Mother Earth, your path to longevity is assured.

Bee Pollen

Those miraculous tiny golden-brown pebbles produced by honeybees, who take pollen from flowers to their hive include all the nutrients the human body needs. Pretty amazing right ?

Bee poleen, a food that has been formally recognised by Germany as medicine, reduces inflamation, detoxifies the system and lowers stress levels. It even reprograms your genetic code for greater immunity, making it an essential ingredient in a logenvity diet.

A great organic farm for locally sourced honey and bee pollen I recommend Northumberland Bee and Honey Farm.

This post contain affiliate links, which means I may receive a small commission, at no extra cost to you, if you make a purchase through a link.

Chlorella

Chlorella is a deep green, chlorophyll-rich algae that boasts a phenomenally nutrient dense profile.

Packed with protein, fatty acids, antioxidants and minerals, it was identified in the 1940’s as a potential solution for feeding large populations with limited resources. It also reduces oxidative stress, which has been proven to slow down the aging process.

Read more about Nutrition here.

Cocoa

Cacao, or raw chocolate, is a seed packing high levels of antioxidants and flavonoids. Snacking on cacao nibs is a delicious way to promote better nerve function and digestion, while reducing your risk of coronary disease and stroke.

Since cocoa is rich in phytonutrients but low in fat and sugar, the calories you get from cocoa powder will be packed with healthy chemicals.

It has also been shown to boost collagen levels, giving it potent anti-aging effects.

Cocoa is mostly consumed as chocolate, including milk and dark chocolate (white chocolate doesn’t have cocoa). The higher the percentage of cocoa in the chocolate, the more likely it is to produce any health benefits.

In addition to chocolate, cocoa is sold as cocoa beans, nibs, liquor, powder, and husk. Cocoa can also be supplemented in capsules. There are also topical products with cocoa and cocoa butter.

Read here my other post about foods that boost brain function.

Manuka Honey

Manuka honey is not like standard honey.

One of the world’s richest natural antimicrobial sources, the honey produced by bees pollinating New Zealand’s Manuka bush is an essential longevity food. These flowers bloom for only six to 12 weeks out of the entire year, so sourcing the honey is truly a frenzy.

It reduces allergies, boosts immunity, and prevents and treats a whole range of ailments, from digestive issues to gingivitis.

Keep in mind that the darker the honey is, the more nutritionally dense it is. According to the Unique Manuka Factor Honey Association, which tests and verifies manuka honey brands as authentic, the nectar and bees give manuka honey its unique health properties.

Coconut

Among the versatile coconut’s many benefits, its medium chain fatty acids make it a natural addition to any longevity diet.

These type of fatty acids are digested more easily than saturated fats and go straight to the liver to be used as energy. This means fat from coconuts is much less likely to be stored as body fat.

For more about Coconut and it’s benefits including Coconut Oil read this post.

Spirulina

The benefits of consuming these blue-green fresh water algae have been studied thousands of times. Ground into powder and added to foods or simply mixed with water, spirulina is strongly favoured but worth it.

It detoxifies heavy metals, helps prevent cancer, reduces blood pressure and cholesterol and lowers inflammation, all these being life extending benefits.

Stress less, exercise more, practice mindfulness and spend time with your loved ones and don’t forget that healthy foods boost energy and create a happier life for you and your family.

” The Road to Better Health

What Is Your Gut

When talking about a healthy gut, people are actually referring to what is called a microbiome. Your microbiome is the diverse population of trillions of microbes that live in your body. This part of your body controls how healthy you are both physically and mentally.

The idea that the bacteria that live in your gastrointestinal tract plays an important role in the health of your brain is now a major focus of research and interest.

Your microbes are essential to the health of your gut and play a part in your physical health. The microbiome’s role in promoting good health may now extend to the health of your brain.

If you personally deal with depression, your diet may have more of an influencing factor than you realized.

The microbiome consists of thousands of different types of bacteria, both ‘good’ and ‘bad.’ A healthy microbiome favors beneficial bacteria and prevents too much ‘bad’ bacteria which could harm your health.

It’s crucial to have a lot of beneficial bacteria and for this eat a whole, healthy well-balanced diet full of probiotic and prebiotic foods.

This post contain affiliate links, which means I may receive a small commission, at no cost to you, if you make a purchase through a link.

The Beginnings

Where does it all start you may wonder…well, it all starts with the beginning and that is when we are born.

We “inherit” bacteria from our mothers when being born, vaginally that is as when it comes to a c-section things are different.

Have you ever hear of the term Virgin Gut ? The gut of a baby is immunologically and microbiologically naive at birth. Another important characteristic of the newborn gut is that, until around 6 months of age, it is “open”. This means the spaces between the cells of the small intestine will allow large molecules to pass directly into their bloodstream.

Consequently, as well as the beneficial antibodies in breast milk passing into baby’s bloodstream, allergy-triggering proteins from other foods, disease-causing pathogens and other bad things can also pass through.

Perhaps the most interesting fact of all is that you are, at best, only 10 percent human. The rest of you is made up of bacterial cells. There are 10-100 trillion bacterial cells in your gut. More than 1000 different species and 7000 different strains. These beneficial bacteria strengthen the immune system so that in the long term it can fend off chronic health problems like food allergies and asthma. 

Diet provides nutrients for the maintenance and growth of bacterial communities and acts as a selective factor for differential bacterial colonization.

If breast milk is all that has ever entered baby’s gut, it retains much of its sterility and is often referred to as a “virgin gut”.

Only small amounts of formula or solid foods can cause a shift that destroys the virgin gut environment, changing acidity and destroying the immunoglobulins that coat mucosal surfaces making them more permeable. This is why mother’s milk is so important in the first months of a babie’s life but we’ll discuss that more in depth in another article.

How To Promote a Healthy Gut

1. Eat Prebiotic and Probiotic Foods

Probiotic foods contain live bacteria whereas prebiotic food contains ingredients like certain types of fiber that nurture the growth of bacteria. Basically, prebiotics are the food for the good bacteria that your body needs for probiotics to actually help your gut lining.

Foods high in prebiotics include:

• Oats
• Bananas
• Chickpeas, lentils, and beans
• Asparagus
• Artichokes
• Garlic
• Nuts

2. Consume Plenty of Fruits, Veggies and Dietary Fiber

A diet consisting of a wide variety of whole foods such as vegetables, fruit, and whole grains can lead to a more diverse gut flora.

Generally, a diverse and rich gut flora is considered a healthy one. When your gut flora, body pH, and body systems become unbalanced, your candida levels can get out of control. This can lead to fatigue, skin issues, and sugar cravings to name just a few.

3. Cut Down On Sugar

Cutting down on sugar can be tough. It’s in nearly everything we eat nowadays; making it hard to avoid. To start cutting down on sugar, eliminate fizzy drinks first. Then move onto candy and processed sweets. It’s hard to remove sugar all in one go, so it’s best to start slowly.

Eating lots of sugar or artificial sweeteners can lead to gut dysbiosis, an imbalance in the gut microbiome. Sugar can feed yeasts in the gut like candida albicans. This yeast is normally present in the gut but when left unchecked it can multiply.

An overgrowth of yeast can cause an imbalance in the gut and lead to problems like thrush, digestive issues, fatigue, and skin problems.

4. Get Enough Sleep

Your body has its own 24-hour clock known as a circadian rhythm that affects your brain, body, and hormones. It’s been found that your gut also follows a similar circadian-like rhythm. Disrupting your body clock through shift work or eating late at night may have harmful effects on your gut bacteria.

The modern way of living and being constantly connected can make it difficult to get your seven hours a night, but it’s vital for maintaining high energy levels and alertness.

5. Exercise Regularly

Working out regularly not only contributes to good heart health and mental clarity, but research suggests it may benefit the gut too.

One study found that athletes had a bigger variety of gut flora than non athletes. Check out a fitness gym, get a personal trainer or join a martial arts club,as this last one not only helps you improve your physical health but your mental health along with confidence building and long lasting life skills.

6. Take a Good Probiotic & Prebiotic Supplement

We can get probiotics from our food. But sometimes either we forget to eat foods with probiotics in them, or we just aren’t getting enough. That’s why taking a probiotic supplement can be so beneficial to maintaining our gut health.

Taking a probiotic supplement is like having a safety net for your microbiome. Don’t forget our children sometimes need a good probiotic too.

Those feel-good chemicals in your brain called serotonin are made in the gut rather than the brain.

If your gut is happy, you’ll feel happy too!

Yes, you should always try to get the nutrients you need from your diet, but a supplement can provide you with the extra assurance that you are actually getting the nutrients you need every single day.

7. Avoid Antibiotics

Although it’s often necessary to take antibiotics for health reasons the overuse of antibiotics is a serious public health problem.According to the CDC, doctors in the United States prescribe 30% of antibiotics or 47 million prescriptions, unnecessarily. When antibiotics are over-prescribed, it can lead to antibiotic resistance in the population. There are more than 2.8 million antibiotic-resistant infections that occur in the United States every year.

Antibiotics are damaging to your gut microbiome. Research suggests that even after six months after antibiotic use, the gut is still lacking in several beneficial species. It’s important to discuss antibiotic use with your doctor and think about alternatives if possible.

Things like garlic and echinacea have natural antibacterial properties that benefit both your gut and overall health.

Read more about Nutrition here.

A healthy gut is crucial to your overall health, so be sure to eat a diet rich in whole grains, vegetables and fruit. Consuming plenty of probiotic and prebiotic foods helps to create a balanced microbiome with lots of beneficial bacteria.