Americans have had a love affair with apples ever since John Chapman-better known as Johnny Appleseed-traveled the country in the early 1800′s planting apple seeds along the way. As pioneers moved west, planting apple trees was a sign that they intended to settle in a new locale. Some land companies even required settlers to plant apple orchards in order to claim a parcel of land. Apples are as American as, well, apple pie. And that’s not even taking into account their supposed health benefits. The saying “An apple a day keeps the doctor away” is just the modern version of an older saying from Devonshire, England, in the 1500s: “Ate an apfel avore gwain to bed. Makes the doctor beg his bread.”

Do apples really deserve all this acclaim? They obviously not the best source of pigments. Except for a thin skin, they’re white throughout. And did you ever wonder why apples float when you bob for them? It’s because 25 percent of their volume is air. They’re not the best  source of vitamins or minerals, either. They don’t contain large amounts of any of them.

That’s three strikes, but apples are not out. Here’s why. If you eat apples with the skin, you tap into an important reserve of flavonoids, including quercetin. In lab studies, quercetin shows numerous health benefits. It is a strong antioxidant that can “quench” a particularly damaging free radical called singlet oxygen.

Of all the fruits, apples (both red and green) contain the highest levels of quercetin. Given quercetin’s antioxidant and anti inflammatory strength, this flavonoid may be the reason why appleas are connected to heart health.

If your kids refuse to eat apple skins, do not despair. At least they will be getting fiber. Eighty percent of the fiber in apples is in the white flesh of the fruit.

Fiber comes in two varieties, soluble and insoluble. Neither one is absorbed from the digestive tract into the bloodstream. But both are valuable.

The flesh of apples contains soluble fiber, most of it in a form called pectin. Pectin bulks up in the stomach, making you feel full. At the same time, it temporarily binds sugars, so that they don’t rush into the bloodstream at once. Pectin releases these sugars gradually, keeping blood sugar levels steady. Pectin’s main claim to fame, however, it that it lowers cholesterol.

If you eat the peel along with the apple, you get even more fiber, particularly insoluble fiber (better known as roughage).

Exert taken from  ”The Color Code: A Revolutionary Eating Plan For Optimum Health

Written by: James Joseph (Author), Daniel Nadeau (Author), Anne Underwood (Author)