@ APPLES, JUST PLAIN OLD

Plain old APPLES. Who would’ve thought? Not me, it was one of the later items that I studied and that was no accident. I frankly didn’t think that APPLES could….keep the doctor away. What I learned surprised me.

Did you know that eating one medium APPLE equals the same antioxidant value as a 1500mg capsule of VITAMIN C? And did you know that the antioxidants an APPLE provides are five times more prevalent in its skin?

The APPLE is a member of the rose family (rosaceae), MALUS DOMESTICA. Currently there are more than 7500 different cultivars. There are many members of the MALUS genus and it is the most widely domesticated of them. It originated in Western Asia and its “wild” ancestor (the ALMA) can still be found there.

Phenolic phytonutrients have been found consistently to have anti-cancer properties. The ones predominant in APPLES are QUERCETIN (several types), EPICATECHIN, AND PROCYANIDINS.

Much to my additional surprise the phytonutrients in APPLE JUICE were found to help prevent the “decline in cognitive performance that accompanies dietary and genetic deficiencies and aging” in mice as well as the alleviation of oxidative damage and cognitive decline.

We both know that when we look in the mirror there is very little relationship in our appearance to fruit flies, but it still is fascinating to know that those flies fed a diet of APPLE extract lived 10% longer.

For those people, albeit rare who eat the whole darn APPLE core and all (really!?) dont! The seeds are slightly poisonous containing a little amygdalin, perhaps not enough to be dangerous to you or me, but who wants to play with being ill?

My initial “raw” research notes appear below, more detailed discussion of the supporting studies will have to follow at a later date.

–several studies have specifically linked APPLE consumption with a reduction in some cancers, especially lung cancer
–case control study in Hawaii, APPLES and ONIONS linked to reduced risk of lung cancer. In the group with the highest consumption of APPLES, ONIONS and WHITE GRAPEFRUIT there was a 40 to 50% decrease in cancer.
–high in QUERCETIN and QUERCETIN conjugates.
–Finnish study with 10,000 people and a 24 year follow up found a strong inverse association between flavonoid intake and lung cancer development
–6 studies in the past year by a Cornell researcher added to the growing evidence that APPLES affect breast cancer
–may reduce colorectal cancer
–extracts from APPLE skins inhibited colon cancer cells by 43%. Liver cells inhibited 57%. Some varieties performed better than others: FUJI, SPARTAN, and RED DELICIOUS
–APPLE peels contain exceptionally high concentrations of antioxidants.
–APPLE peel extracts were examined for their anti-proliferative effects on various cancer cell types. The peel extracts were obtained from GALA APPLES (I’ve seen these in the local grocery on occasion!). They demonstrated a significant decrease in growth and “clonogenic” survival of a prostate carcinoma CWR22Rnu1 and DU145 cell lines as well as breast Mcf-7 and Mcf-7:Her18 cell lines. The extract decreased a marker for cell proliferation (good) and resulted in an increase in maspin, a tumor suppressor protein (another good thing). The researchers felt that the APPLE peel extract possessed strong antiproliferative effects against cancer cells, (note the word “strong”)
–another study with several thousand patients and several categories of cancers found a “consistent inverse relationship between APPLES and risk of various cancers”. (those cancers were: oral, pharynx, oesophagus, larynx, colorectum, breast, ovary, and prostate.
–another study found an APPLE oligogalactin to be “highly effective against intestinal toxicities and carcinogenesis…and that it may be used for the treatment of colitis and the prevention of carcinogenesis.
(this is a concentrated specific singular compound, I have a feeling that a lot of apples would have to be eaten to equal laboratory levels. The point of this report, here, is that there are things on the horizon that can and will prove valuable in fighting disease…along with a good diet of course!”)
–a study on breast cancer and the synergistic effect of APPLES combined with QUERCETIN 3-BETA-D-GLUCOSIDE, they of course were found to be synergistic when combined together against breast cancer.
–a group of Sprague-Dawley rats were given a chemical that would CAUSE rat mammary breast cancer, they were then divided into groups one getting WHOLE APPLE EXTRACT another not. The WAE group was observed to have a “dose dependent inhibition of breast cancer” and “tumor multiplicity decreased with increased levels of WAE. The APPLE extract was considered to have “potent capacity…to suppress..mammary cancers in rats.”
–OLIGOMERIC PROCYANIDINS from whole APPLES and APPLE extracts and ‘components’ (juice) were and have been shown to “influence multiple mechanisms relevant for cancer prevention in IN VITRO studies”.
–“epidemiological observations indicate that regular consumption of one or more apples a day may reduce the risk for lung and colon cancer”
–Red Delicious APPLE peels were assessed for their bioactive constituents. Twenty-nine compounds were isolated and identified and then tested against human liver cancer cells and human breast cancer cells.
Many of the compounds tested higher in antioxidant activity than ascorbic acid and several were distinctly active against cancer proliferation: two QUERCETIN variants. the researchers summarized “…have potent antioxidant and anti-proliferative activities”

Much to my surprise “An APPLE a day keeps the doctor away”, or ???oncologist???
It almost seems that one should peel an apple and eat the peel only. APPLES are much more than just their peel/appearance. There are a large number of phytonutrients in APPLES that I have not listed above. The pectin in the flesh of an APPLE has an ability to inhibit cancer too.

This is just the “peel” of the whole story involving APPLES and cancer. My research feels incomplete and I cant wait to return to that phase again and find out more about this common and delicious APPLE.

may you be tempted…to eat of the tree of knowledge
and live better for it

martin