While the adage about apples and doctors may not hold precisely true, getting proper nutrition and maintaining a healthy weight can keep the doctor away, and apples can help you achieve these goals. With a host of nutritional advantages and few negatives, apples are a smart choice for daily snacking.
Low Calories
A whole medium apple with its skin has about 100 calories. That’s about 5 percent of an average daily calorie intake. Apples compare favorably to plums, bananas, peaches and grapes in their calorie count per serving. The fruit fits well even into reduced-alorie diets; if you crave something sweet on your diet, a 100-calorie apple for dessert may satisfy your sweet tooth without breaking your calorie budget. These figures apply to a 6.5-ounce apple; smaller apples have fewer calories, so if you’re following a strict plan, scale the fruit to the size that fits your diet.
High Fiber
Dietary fiber comes in two forms, soluble and insoluble. While insoluble fiber provides bulk and aids your digestive health, soluble fiber combines with liquid in your digestive system to form a gel that fills your stomach and helps assuage hunger. An apple provides 4 grams of fiber per medium apple if you eat the skin; if you peel the apple, you get 2 to 3 grams from the flesh alone. A diet rich in fiber may help you maintain or reach a healthy weight, and apples provide both soluble and insoluble fiber. Eating at least an apple a day may also reduce your level of LDL or "bad" cholesterol, thanks to the fruit’s fiber content.
Antioxidants
Antioxidants neutralize potentially harmful free radicals that can cause damage to your body’s cells. Different types of apples provide different antioxidants, so eating a selection of red, green and variegated apples broadens the spectrum of antioxidants you get from the fruit.
Sugar Content
Like most other fruits, apples contain fructose, a naturally occurring sugar. The type of apple you eat determines how much sugar it contains, but a medium apple usually contains between 16 and 20 grams of sugar. If you eat a low-carbohydrate diet or a diet to control diabetes, you need to count your sugar grams. If you eat apples regularly and have diabetes, ask your doctor about your diet to ensure that your meal plan allows fruit in quantity.
Boredom
When you eat any food on a daily basis, you could grow bored with it, and with boredom comes temptation to make food choices that are not as healthy as fresh fruit. You could also miss out on the wider array of nutrients you’d get from consuming a broader variety of fruit. Although they’re rich in fiber, apples have relatively little vitamin C, providing only 14 percent of your daily requirement for the nutrient. Swapping your daily apple for an occasional ascorbic acid-rich orange would make your diet more balanced.
