A is for apple
Forbidden fruit? Nutrition Editor Eve Kalinik is very much tempted by the benefits of the adaptable apple
Apples have been used in multiple idioms: ‘the apple of my eye’, ‘the apple never falls far from the tree’ and, probably most famously, when it comes to nutrition anyway, ‘an apple a day keeps the doctor away’. Apples certainly have anecdotal celebrity, and maybe this is due to their myriad health benefits. Firstly, apples are one of the best sources of pectin, a non-digestible fibre, which can have positive effects on gut health, helping to keep things moving along. Pectin also encourages the growth of beneficial gut bacteria; and supports these microbes to produce butyrate, an important antiinfiammatory substance that is necessary for the health of cells in our colon, and has a protective role for our immune system.