“An apple a day” might seem like overkill, but America’s most popular fruit — currently weighing down branches in orchards everywhere — is packed with health benefits. Here’s what nutrition experts have to say about apples, plus some recipes from New York Times Cooking to help you eat more of them all year long.
They’re good for your gut.
Apples are rich in dietary fiber, a type of complex carbohydrate that our body isn’t capable of digesting on its own. That fiber acts as food for many of the bacteria species that reside in our guts. These bacteria have a powerful impact on our health, affecting everything from cancer risk, to weight, to mood.
A diet high in fruits and vegetables, including apples, has been shown to increase the number of beneficial bacteria and decrease the number of harmful bacteria in peoples’ guts, said Marie van der Merwe, a nutrition scientist at the University of Memphis. That could lead to better overall health, Dr. van der Merwe said.
In addition, apples themselves contain a host of beneficial bacteria. (While this is true for all fruits and vegetables, one study found that apples have a greater variety of bacteria than most.) When you eat an apple, some of those bacteria may become part of your microbiome. The apple is “acting like a probiotic in addition to acting like a prebiotic,” Dr. van der Merwe explained.
They’re heart healthy.
Apples have high amounts of pectin, a dietary fiber that can help you maintain healthy cholesterol levels. In a 2012 study, 160 postmenopausal women ate either 75 grams of dried apples (equal to about two medium sized apples) or prunes every day for one year. After six months, the women who consumed apples experienced a 13 percent drop in their total cholesterol and a 24 percent drop in “bad” LDL cholesterol, while the women who ate prunes experienced a 3.5 percent drop in total cholesterol and an 8 percent drop in LDL cholesterol.