Keep chronic disease at bay and lose some weight in the process by enjoying one of fall’s most abundant fruits—apples. While apples may be common and easy to take for granted, research suggests they really can help keep the doctor away.
However, there are red-flag issues with apples that many people aren’t aware of. The fruit is consistently on the Environmental Working Group’s list of produce items with the highest concentrations of harmful pesticides, and some varieties are genetically modified.
Here is a complete rundown on apples’ many benefits, along with cautions about the potential risks from the modern agricultural practices used to grow them.
A Rich Source of Phytochemicals
Apples are a rich source of vitamins C and E, potassium, magnesium, and phytochemicals, non-nutrient plant compounds that confer many health benefits. Thousands of phytochemicals have been identified in foods, yet there are still many that haven’t been identified.Flavonoids, powerful antioxidants that help fight off free radicals that damage and age the body, are a major type of phytochemical found in apples. In
a Finnish study of approximately 10,000 people, flavonoid intake was associated with lower total mortality. Dietary flavonoids from apples showed the strongest association with decreased mortality.
Reduced Risk of Obesity, Cancer, and Other Diseases
Apples are high in water and dietary fiber, which makes them filling. They’re also lower in carbohydrates and calories than other sources of carbs, such as grains and beans. For these reasons, eating apples may help with weight control.
Studies on animals and humans have shown that eating apples in different forms can cause weight loss in overweight subjects, and
some studies suggest that the polyphenols in apples may have anti-obesity effects.
Additionally, apples have been found to decrease one’s risk of chronic diseases including cancer, asthma, and cardiovascular disease.
“In vitro and animal studies have demonstrated that apples have high antioxidant activity, can inhibit cancer cell proliferation, decrease lipid oxidation, and lower cholesterol, potentially explaining their role in reducing risk of chronic disease,” a
2004 research review published in Nutrition Journal reads.
Studies suggest that eating apples may improve blood vessel function, cholesterol metabolism, and inflammation—factors that may explain their protective effects against cardiovascular disease.
Research from 2015 suggests that the fiber and polyphenols in apples benefit gut microbiome composition, which may also play a previously unrecognized role in reducing cardiovascular disease risk factors.
In terms of protection against cancer, a
2011 review titled “A Comprehensive Review of Apples and Apple Components and Their Relationship to Human Health” explains that there are “multiple plausible mechanisms” by which apples might reduce risk of cancer in humans.
Test-tube studies suggest that apple polyphenols keep cancerous cells from multiplying. These polyphenols, along with apples’ antioxidant properties, are believed to exert “chemopreventive” activity, lowering a person’s risk of developing cancer or preventing it from coming back. Apple pectin fiber may provide other cancer-fighting properties.
Apples might protect lung function and help prevent inflammatory and allergenic lung diseases, like asthma, because of their antioxidant potential and phytochemical content.
Other Health Benefits
An ongoing trial found that women who ate one apple per day had a 28 percent lower risk of Type 2 diabetes compared to those who consumed no apples.
The previously mentioned
article from 2011 summarized studies that suggest that apples may have beneficial effects on outcomes related to Alzheimer’s disease, cognitive decline in aging, and bone health.
That same article concluded that the data related to apple products and disease risk reduction are “provocative and varied.” The combined phytochemical and nutrient profiles in apples suggest “their potential to be powerful in the prevention of several chronic conditions in humans.”
Beware of Pesticides
As beneficial as research shows apples to be, many synthetic chemical pesticides are applied to nonorganic apples, which may offset some of their benefits or add new health risks.Each year since 2004, the Environmental Working Group has updated its “Shoppers Guide to Pesticides in Produce” and compiled a “dirty dozen” list of the produce items with the most pesticide residues. Apples are generally near the top of the list because they contain an average of 4.4 pesticide residues, including some at high concentrations. Apples were, once again, on the
dirty dozen list in 2022.
Tests of raw apples conducted by Department of Agriculture scientists in 2016 found diphenylamine on 80 percent of them. Diphenylamine is a controversial chemical that was restricted on European imported apples beginning in 2014.
But pesticide concerns go far beyond diphenylamine. A database of pesticides used on different crops in the United States, compiled by Beyond Pesticides, shows that there are 109 pesticides used on apples. Ninety-four of the pesticides, including the problematic herbicide glyphosate, are linked to chronic health problems (such as cancer); 92 are poisonous to wildlife; 44 are considered toxic to insect pollinators, including honeybees; 39 are acutely toxic, creating a hazardous environment for farmworkers; and 25 contaminate streams and groundwater.
While not all of the pesticides on the list are applied to apples, there’s no way to tell which pesticides are applied to any given conventional apple on your store shelf. The main ways to protect yourself are to buy organic or talk to local farmers about the pesticides they use.
Genetically Modified
Another relatively new issue is the introduction of genetically modified (GM) apples engineered for a purely cosmetic effect. These are rarely clearly labeled as GM.The Arctic apple, developed by Okanagan Specialty Fruits, has been genetically modified to not immediately turn brown when cut or bruised. This modification utilizes a relatively new genetic engineering technology known as RNA interference, which interferes with the fruit’s natural production of an enzyme that causes browning (i.e., polyphenol oxidase) by silencing the genes that express it, thereby sharply reducing the amount of the enzyme present in the apple, according to The Non-GMO Project.
The apples, which are slated to be sold as grab-and-go, pre-cut slices or cubes, have the name Arctic, a logo, and a square QR code on packages.
The Center for Food Safety said that the USDA’s environmental assessment of the new variety was inadequate, and that a proper characterization of the polyphenol oxidase genes, their functions, and the impacts of silencing them in the apple tree as a whole wasn’t conducted before these apples were allowed on the market in the United States. The center noted that those genes have been shown in other plants to be associated with pathogen resistance and that silencing them could lead to more susceptibility to disease and pests, possibly resulting in increased use of pesticides on GM apples.
About half of U.S. adults are wary of the health effects of genetically modified foods, according to
Pew Research Center surveys, and nearly half of U.S. consumers at least somewhat avoid GM foods, according to
a 2018 survey.
Furthermore, the non-browning cosmetic effect is unnecessary because there are other ways to keep apples from browning when sliced: for example, by spritzing the slices with a little lemon juice or another form of vitamin C.
If you want to purchase apples that don’t easily brown when cut, try naturally nonbrowning
Opal apples, a variety produced using natural breeding techniques. They’re a warm golden yellow color and similar in flavor to Honeycrisp apples.
A key way to avoid both pesticides and GM foods is to purchase organic apples.
Get the Most Benefits from Apples
Apples are a powerful, nutrient-rich, and disease-preventing food. To reap the most health benefits from them with the lowest level of potential risks, eat them in their whole form with the skin, where the highest amounts of their most protective nutrients are found, and buy organic varieties.