The old adage, "An apple a day keeps the doctor away" is actually a truest truth.

When it comes to your health, one of mother nature's most perfect all round, everyday foods is the humble Apple. 

In fact, it's no accident that when you slice an apple across the middle you notice a perfect 5-pointed star.  The human body with legs separated and arms outstretched, stands in the shape of a 5-pointed star.

Apples are designed for human beings as one of earth's most vital and versatile foods. And with hundreds of varieties grown around the world, you’ll never get sick of this affordable, delicious fruit.

Apples provide tons of nutrients and vitamins, whilst also filling you with crucial detoxifying pectins and fibres. 

They also support your heart and respiratory health and help to reduce inflammatory conditions like arthritis and much more. 

Keep reading to find out all of the wonderful health benefits of apples and why you should never skip an apple a day again!

1. Provides Plenty of Nutrients and Fibre

There’s not enough room to list every single vitamin, mineral and enzyme that makes up an apple.  You just need to know that the nutrients within an apple benefits almost every single bodily function and organ. The skins and flesh of apples are loaded with fibre, pectins, vitamins, minerals, and at least 12,000 other phytalitic health guardians. 

Apples are fat free, cholesterol free and one of the lowest glycemic fruits, meaning that they won't cause spikes in blood sugar, making them the perfect snack food.

You’ll get about 4 grams of dietary fibre in a medium-sized, 5-ounce apple, which can help take the edge off hunger pangs and to keep you satiated for hours. 

To take full advantage of the nutrients in apples, it’s important to include the skins, because this is where much of the nutrition is contained.

Since apples are one of the most heavily sprayed crops out there, try to purchase organically-grown or locally grown, spray-free apples whenever you can to minimise pesticide residue.

Alternatively, if you can only find conventional apples, don't let that stop you from munching on your daily dose!  Lightly swish your apples in a large bowl or sink half filled with cool water and 1/4 cup of Apple Cider Vinegar for a few minutes, rinse and pat dry.

This will remove any chemical residue from exposure to unwanted pesticide sprays and other potential contaminants. 

Learn more in 7 Good Reasons to Eat an Apple a Day. 

2. Keeps You Regular

Due to the powerful pectins and fibres, apples are incredible for your digestive system and also for stripping heavy metals from the body that may have accumulated over time due to medication, vaccines or other invasive substances.

In fact, Galen (a second century Roman physician) and Hippocrates first discovered apple’s digestive qualities and so started a custom of serving apples during every day.

Whether you’re struggling with going to the bathroom too often or not enough, apples are great for keeping your bowels working like a well-oiled machine.

This is key if you want avoid diseases like bowel cancer, ulcerative colitis, crohn's disease, IBS etc. 

Also, digestive conditions caused by chronic constipation are called, “pressure diseases.” Appendicitis, diverticular diseases, haemorrhoids, hiatal hernias and even varicose veins can all be caused by straining to pass small, hard stools. 

The high-fibre content (both soluble and insoluble) in apples helps improve regularity and ease of going to the bathroom, so by eating an apple a day, you’ll never have to worry about regularity again.

Learn more in Digestive System: Top Foods to Support Digestion, Gut Health, & Healing. 

3. Improves Heart Health

It’s no coincidence that an apple is shaped like a heart. This powerful fruit does wonders for improving heart health and reducing your risk for stroke, not to mention improves every other bodily function.

Apples contain a long list of phyto (plant) nutrients that function as Protector/Inhibitors (antioxidants) and support our heart health.

Included in this list are quercetin, catechin, phloridzin and chlorogenic acid. Apples can help lower blood pressure, which decreases the amount of pressure your arteries are under, and they help lower bad cholesterol. The high flavonoid content of apples also can reduce the risk of stroke. 

Not to mention, an apple a day helps take the place of a potentially unhealthy snack and can help you lose weight, which is so important for heart health. 

4. Protects Your Joints

Arthritis shouldn’t be as common as it is. In fact, in areas of the world where fruit and vegetables make up a large part of their diet, very few people develop arthritis and inflammation issues. This is because an apple a day helps cushion and protect your joints from developing a painful and difficult-to-manage condition like arthritis. 

Pair an apple with other boron-rich foods like a few tablespoons of peanut butter and a large handful of raisins. This will not only make for a delicious snack, but you will make your joints happy too! 

5. Improves Your Breathing

Fresh air is one of the pillars of good health, but most of us live in congested, polluted cities where the air is clogged and toxic to our health. Your lungs are assaulted every day by cigarette smoke, pollution, pollen and other air-borne toxins that make it hard to breathe and get fresh oxygen through our bodies. This can cause lung conditions to develop, like asthma or even emphysema.

If you want to help yourself breathe better, reach for an apple a day. The high antioxidants in apples can help fight damage to your lungs and also help reduce inflammation that can make it harder to breathe. Feed your lungs with delicious, fresh apples every day—you’ll definitely notice an improvement come allergy season! 

Learn more in Top 7 Foods for Respiratory Health. 

6. Boosts Energy

Living a healthy, passionate life requires energy, the kind that you simply can’t get from processed junk food.

Apples are one of the best natural sources of energy because they contain millions of slow release sugars and fibres that provide your body with long-lasting fuel that doesn’t cause spikes in your blood sugar and leave you crashing. 

The key is to eat the apple whole.

Whilst juicing has incredible health benefits, particularly if cleansing or juice fasting, for every day nutrition, eat the entire fruit as it preserves the fibres which will fuel your body for the day and keep you satisfied, rather than reaching for refined carbs which make you crash and burn. 

Learn more in Top 7 Energy-Boosting ‘Super Foods’. 

If you are juicing in the morning or choose to fast from time to time, include Apples in your juice blends as a base before adding other fruits, vegetables or greens.

One such recipe is the ancient blend of CABALA which helps to clear built-up plaque from your body and rebuild your blood.

Juice together the following ingredients: 

C - 2.2 kg Carrots

A - 2 x Red Apples

B - 1 Beet (1/3 fist size)

A - 2 x Yellow Apples

L - 1 x Lemon (including the rind)

A - 2 x Green Apples 

If you don’t have time to make it fresh, this RAW Juice Powder gives you all the benefits of CABALA juice on the go.

Learn more in The Healing Powers of CABALA Juice. 

An apple a day truly does keep the doctor away, and working an apple into your daily diet is not that hard.

As a snack, sliced up on oatmeal for breakfast, blended into juice or a smoothie, chopped into a fresh salad… the ways to eat apples are endless.

From reducing inflammation to filling you with healthy fibres, apples are an everyday super snack food.

There’s a reason they’ve been around since the dawn of time and have spawned thousands and thousands of varieties. 

From eating applesauce as babies to losing baby teeth in apples in our childhood, they’ve always been a staple of our diets and should remain so, especially as we get older and need all the health benefits that mother nature provides to help preserve our health. 

Tolman Self Care.