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Friday blog posts will now be featuring one awesome high fiber food. Please contact me or comment below to have your request for food featured on an upcoming Friday!

Types of Apples

Apples come in all kinds of different varieties. Over 100 types are sold in the US alone, but the most popular types are listed below. My personal favorite is the Gala, but the Honeycrisp apple is extremely popular right now!

  • Red Delicious
  • Gala
  • McIntosh
  • Golden Delicious
  • Rome
  • Granny Smith
  • Braeburn
  • Honeycrisp
  • Cortland
  • Idared
  • Empire
  • Jonagold
  • Fuji
  • Jonathan
  • Ginger Gold

Apples Quick Fact Card

Fiber Focus Friday apple quick fact card

Fiber Content of Apples

Your average apple has 4 grams of fiber. Of course, this will fluctuate depending on the apple size, but the fiber content does  not change too much depending on the type of apple.

Eating one apple per day gives you a good percentage of your daily fiber requirements, and while it may not necessarily keep the doctor away forever, it will certainly help to keep your visits few and far between!

Health Benefits of Eating Apples

  1. Being high in antioxidants. Antioxidants are disease fighting compounds that are found in a lot of different types of fruits.
  2. Detoxification of the liver.
  3. Immune system boost from red apples that contain quercetin.
  4. The polyphenols in apples can help to regulate spikes in blood sugar.
  5. Eating an apple before a big meal can reduce your calorie intake by 15%.

Apples are excellent additions to your diet, but for best results eat the entire fruit. Slicing off the skin and eating just the juicy part is acceptable, but the BEST part of the apple is the skin. The skin contains all of the fiber and most of the other important nutrients. Eat the skinand win!

Where Do Apples Come From?

Obviously, apples grow on trees. We have multiple apple orchards throughout the Unites States, and just about anyone can find apples in their local grocery store.

But where did apples come from? Apples make their appearance as early as the first man and woman in the Bible when they decided to eat the forbidden fruit. (The fruit may have actually been a pomegranate or a grape, but no one really knows for sure).

Regardless, apple trees have been around for a long time and are native to the Middle East and Central Asia. Now, within reason, apples trees can be grown all over the place if the right conditions are met! You can even grow one in your backyard if you have the patience and the foresight to wait out the 4-5 years it can take for the apple tree to bear its first fruits!

Fun Facts About Apples

  • 7,500 varieties of apples are grown throughout the world. Not all of these varieties are sold commercially, but still, that is a lot of different apples!
  • The pilgrims planted the first United States apple trees in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
  • Pomology is the science of apple growing.
  • Apples are a member of the rose family.
  • It takes the energy from 50 leaves to produce one apple.
  • The top apple producing states are Washington, New York, Michigan,Pennsylvania, California and Virginia.
  • Granny smith apples are often used to cook with.
  • Apple seeds contain a cyanide compound. This poison can be tolerated by humans in small doses, and is further protected by the seed on the apple. Just don’t go around eating handfuls of apple seeds at a time and you will be perfectly safe.
  • Keep your apples in the fridge to keep them tasting their best!

Ways to eat an Apple

You can eat an apple all kinds of different ways such as slicing it, making it into a pie, or even just eating it normally… My favorite way is to just grab an apple out of the fridge and chow down!

Drinking apple juice is an okay way to get some of the benefits of the apple, but it normally contains so much added sugar that it isn’t worth it. Added sugar is an enemy for any diet and should always be avoided when possible. The better way to go is make a delicious apple smoothie which will save all of the best parts of the apple, and you can control what else you put in it!

There are so many different ways to eat apples, so find a recipe that you love and make sure to eat apples regulary! See the following links below for some excellent apple recipes:

  1. http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/articles/50-things-to-make-with-apples.html
  2. http://www.southernliving.com/food/holidays-occasions/apple-recipes
  3. http://www.lovefromtheoven.com/2011/11/01/apple-recipe-round-up-bites-from-other-blogs/

Final Thoughts on This Deliciously Fruitful Beast of the Fiber World

Make it a purpose to add apples into your diet. They are abundant, manipulable, and most importantly awesome for your health!

Do you like apples? Do you have a favorite recipe? Let me know in the comments below and have a great day!

-Jordan