Don't Cross Your Eyes...They'll Get Stuck That Way!: And 75 Other Health Myths Debunked Read Online Free PDF

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Apples
    An apple a day keeps the doctor away
    Rachel loves apples and has eaten an apple a day for most of her life. She may have become an apple aficionado in her early days because of all of the orchards where she grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Despite this love of apples, Rachel hasn’t managed to keep the doctor(s) away. Seriously though—the belief that “an apple a day will keep the doctor away” might not be something to laugh at. Scientists have done a lot of research to determine what is in apples and how they might benefit us. While an apple a day is not going to cure or prevent all of your medical problems, it turns out that apples are a good part of a healthy diet.
    Food science examines many potential ways in which apples can help you. In general, there is plenty of evidence to suggest that eating fruits and vegetables is good for you. People who eat diets that are high in fruits and vegetables have less cancer and less heart disease. Scientists generally explain this because fruits and vegetables have certain chemicals, such as phenolics, flavonoids, and carotenoids, all of which are thought to reduce your chances of developing certain chronic diseases. People who eat lots of fruits and vegetables also tend to be slimmer, and that lowers your chances of developing other diseases as well.
    What is the evidence for eating an apple a day? Researchers have looked at a lot of epidemiologic studies (studies of large groups of people) to see whether apple eaters might do better than apple scorners. In these studies, eating apples was associated with fewer cases of certain cancers, as well as fewer cases of heart disease, asthma, and diabetes. In a study of 77,000 women and 47,000 men surveyed through the Nurses’ Health Study, people who ate one serving a day of apples and pears had fewer instances of lung cancer. In a Finnish study of 10,000 men and women, those who ate the most flavonoids (which were mostly coming from apples and onions) also had the lowest rates of lung cancer. An apple plus a pear plus an onion keeps the doctor away? These are big studies, which are always good, but they do not really test if apples “work” to keep you healthy. It is possible that people who choose to eat apples also choose to do other healthy things that keep them in good shape.
    A number of case-control studies have also tried to look at the apple question. In these studies, researchers take people with cancer and people without cancer and ask them about what they have eaten. In a study of patients with and without lung cancer, those who remembered eating the most apples, onions, and white grapefruit had the lowest risk of lung cancer. In a study of patients with and without colorectal cancer, those who ate more than one apple a day (one apple a day was not good enough) had fewer instances of colorectal cancer. These studies suggest that there might be benefit to eating a bunch of apples, but it is also important to remember that the cancer patients’ recall of what they ate might be skewed by the fact that they have been diagnosed with cancer. It’s easy for people who have cancer to start worrying that they were not healthy enough before their diagnosis; that they didn’t eat enough fruits and vegetables, for example, and blame those bad habits for their cancer. This can throw off our understanding of the studies’ reports.
    There is also some evidence that apples are good for your heart. In the Women’s Health Study, which surveyed 40,000 people, eating flavonoids (which are contained in apples) was tied to having fewer “cardiovascular events” even though how many flavonoids you ate did not decrease how many strokes, heart attacks, or deaths from cardiac problems you had. In a study from Finland, women who reported eating fewer apples and onions (combining the apples and onions again!) also had lower rates of type 2 diabetes and more deaths from heart issues, though there was no difference