It all started with an apple.
The scene: work. It’s lunchtime. I take out my daily apple. After all, an apple a day keeps the doctor away, right? Apples are one of the best foods on the planet!
Co-worker: “What…Do you have a gullet?”
He was commenting on my apparently unusual approach to apple-eating; I eat them from the top down. Without coring them.
I eat the whole apple.
There is no real reason not to; the apple ”core” is just more fiber, and any undigested material ends up…well, you know.
Another friend of mine cautioned against accidentally ingesting the seeds. “They have cyanide in them!” While apple seeds do contain a compound called amygdalin, which can convert to cyanide in your stomach; but you only encounter this cyanide-creating compound if you chew the seeds, and even then in extremely minute quantities. The hard casing on them otherwise ensures they will pass naturally through your system. (This also exists in other natural foods, like almonds.) You’d have to eat A LOT of apple seeds(or almonds!) to get poisoned this way.
The old adage about eating an apple a day? All the evidence points to it being accurate. Chock full of Vitamin C and potassium, and 1/5 of your daily fiber requirements. Add some pectin, a pre-biotic, and you’ve got a nearly perfect food. No wonder Eve couldn’t pass it up.
One caveat: To reap the health benefits, you have to eat the whole apple, including the peel. Not just applesauce, apple juice, or even peeled apple slices.
The entire apple.
Everything but the stem.
But you can still spit out the seeds if you really want to.
