Why The Apple Is One Of The World's Most Healing Superfoods

Why The Apple Is One Of The World's Most Healing Superfoods




Posted on: Tuesday, January 8th 2013 at 5:00 am

Written By: Sayer Ji, Founder





This
commonly overlooked superfood protects the body from nuclear fallout,
kills a wide range of cancers, and keeps the arteries unclogged -- to name but a few, experimentally confirmed ways in which the apple awakens your inner physician.

<blockquote>

An apple a day keeps the doctor away.


</blockquote>
This age old saying has never rang with greater promise and authority
than it does today. As in the modern era, doctors bring with them a
battery of tests, drugs, and interventions,
all of which carry unintended, adverse health risks that often outweigh
their purported benefits, and are therefore best avoided whenever
possible.

Also, apples are also far cheaper than doctors, and in the worst case scenario of coerced or mandatory treatment can be thrown as a non-deadly (downright nutritious) form of self-defense.

While some might take this opening aphorism as mere folk medicine
fantasy, the reality is that the medicinal properties of apple are
well-documented within the biomedical literature.

For instance, apple consumption has been the subject of quite a few studies on colorectal cancer risk reduction. [ii] [iii] Other cancers that apple constituents have been studied to kill in pre-clinical research include:

• 
  Liver Cancer: apple juice, apple pectin and apple peel has been experimentally confirmed to kill liver cancer,[iv]
  
• 
  Breast Cancer: apples have been found to both prevent and to suppress mammary cancers in the animal model.[v]
  
• 
  Multi-Drug Resistant Cancer: carotenoids extracted from apple have been found to inhibit drug resistant cancer cell line proliferation.[vi]
  
• 
  Esophageal Cancer: An apple-derived procyanidin has been found to suppress esophageal cancer. [vii]
  
• 
  Stomach Cancer: One of the ways in which apple
  constituents prevent stomach cancer is through their inhibition of
  Helicobacter pylori, one of the main infectious agents linked to both
  ulcer and gastric cancer.[viii]
  But apple procyanidin has also been studied for its ability to directly
  induce programmed cell death within stomach cancer cells.[ix]
  

It is likely that many of the fundamental processes involved in
cancer initiation and promotion are inhibited by apples and their
constituents, and therefore apples may protect against far more cancers
than referenced above. It appears that no matter what part of apple is
studied, it has anti-tumor properties. Apple cider vinegar, for
instance, has been found to contain an anti-tumor compound which results
from the acetic acid fermentative process known as alpha-glycan[i].

Another proven way in which apples reduce the risk of cancer is
through their ability to remove carcinogenic radioisotopes that have
accumulated in our bodies as a result of the fallout from nuclear
weapons, depleted uranium munitions, and nuclear energy and disaster-associated pollution, e.g. Chernobyl and Fukushima.

Post-Chernobyl, for instance, apple pectin was used to reduce Cesium-137 levels in exposed children, in some cases by over 60%.[x]
From 1996 to 2007, a total of more than 160,000 "Chernobyl" children
received pectin food additives. As a result, levels of Cs-137 in
children's organs decreased after each course of pectin additives by an
average of 30-40%.[xi] Significant reductions were noted in as short a time period as 16 days.[xii]
Apple pectin has even been found to prevent the most deadly, and
entirely man-made radioisotope, Plutonium-239, from absorbing in the
gastrointestinal tract of animals fed it.[xiii]

We could, therefore, modernize our apple aphorism by saying "an apple
a day keeps the nuclear fallout away." And truly, there are very few
other substances, natural or synthetic, that have ever been found to protect against plutonium exposure. Apples, therefore, are truly super-foods in this respect.


Other noteworthy "evidence-based" medicinal properties of apple include:

• 
  Diarrhea: Apple, in combination with chamomile, shortens the course of unspecific diarrhea in children.[xiv]
  
• 
  Hardening of the Arteries (Atherosclerosis): Preclinical research indicates that apple contains compounds which prevent the formation of plaque within the arteries.[xv]
  One rabbit study, for instance, found that apple juice was capable of
  preventing the progression of atherosclerosis in a high cholesterol diet
  induced model of atherosclerosis.[xvi]
  
• 
  Overweight: A human study found significant weight
  loss associated with a daily intake of three apples or three pears among
  overweight women.[xvii]
  
• 
  Anti-Aging (Brain): Apples have been found to prevent oxidative damage and impaired maze performance,[xviii]as well as decreases in cognitive performance in aging mice.[xix]
  Also, a study performed on mice found that apple juice actually reduced
  the production of pathological amyloid-beta levels (associated with
  Alzheimer's disease) in the mouse brain.[xx]
  
• 
  Bowel Inflammation: Preclinical research has found that apple procyanidins [xxi]reduces bowel inflammation.[xxii]
  
• 
  Vaccine-Induced Toxicity: Many natural substances, including breast milk, have been found to decrease the synthetically-produced immune reaction
  associated with vaccines, and their adjuvants. Apple polyphenol counts
  among these, and has been found to prevent cholera toxin when used as an
  immune stimulant within vaccines from doing as much damage than it
  would otherwise do.
  
• 
  Periodontal Disease: We all know the sensation that
  follows eating an apple – that astringent property, where our gums feel
  squeaky clean. This is due, in part, to quercetin, which is found in
  apples, tea and onions, for example. It bears significant antimicrobial
  properties.[xxiii]
  Apple polyphenol also protects against periodontal ligament cell
  destruction associated with Porphyromonas gingivalis, a pathogenic
  anaerobic bacteria, infection.[xxiv]
  
• 
  Advanced Glycation End-products (AGEs): AGEs are
  associated with the oxidation of blood sugars, primarily. These sugars
  becomes caramelized when exposed to oxidants, and then binds to cell
  structures, e.g. fats/proteins, causing damage. Apple leaves have been
  found to have significant anti-AGE activity, including the
  vasoconstriction associated with AGE-induced endothelial dysfunction.[xxv]
  
• 
  Hair Loss: Remarkably, a procyanidin, labeled B-2, from apples promotes hair growth, in the cell model.[xxvi]
  
• 
  Staphylococcal Infections: Apple pectin has been
  shown to inhibit synthesis of types A and B staphylococcal enterotoxins,
  which can cause profound bodily damage.[xxvii]
  
• 
  Influenza Infection: Over 60 years ago researchers
  found that the complex carbohydrates that make up apple pectin inhibit
  the infectivity of influenza A virus in chicken blood, as well in
  embryonated eggs, indicating its potential anti-influenza properties.[xxviii]
  

The list of evidence-based therapeutic properties of apple is rather
extensive. To view the full range of experimentally confirmed benefits
view them here: Apple's Health Benefits.

Ultimately, this research on apples indicates how important whole
foods are to our overall health. Apples are not medicine, rather, they
are the means by which medicines become unnecessary. It
is through authentic nourishment and detoxification – both functions
which are provided to us through most fruits - that we prevent and treat disease (note: these statements likely will never be evaluated or approved by the FDA, because they are true). Also, fruit are archetypally beneficial foods for the human species; we have indexed over 300 experimentally confirmed health benefits of fruit
on our database so far. Our evolutionary legacy (confirmed through
modern genetic testing*) indicates that our pre-human ancestors lived in
a jungle setting, where fruit would have been available year round.

This would, in fact, explain why we no longer synthesize vitamin c from glucose
– we were so "spoiled" by the abundance of fruit available for so long
that we gave up (via genetic mutation or atavism) our ability to provide
it to ourselves. Plants and animals live in symbiosis. For the same
reason that our lungs take in oxygen and give off carbon dioxide (which
is live-giving to plants), the fruits of these same plants provide a
seed (which we help disperse), and a flesh to entice us to consume it.
Fruit, therefore, is a food source that is as ancient as human origins
itself. Could this be one reason why apples seem capable of these
amazing feats of healing? Perhaps.

Next time you crunch into a crisp, fresh, organic apple, consider all
that it has to offer, not theoretically, but viscerally. Experience the
joy (the word fruit, etymologically, comes from the Latin word frui,
meaning ENJOY), on a first hand basis. Also, if you have never done an
apple mono-diet before, consider it. It is not so much a fruit fast, as a
feast. Grab a bag of organic apples, and whenever you are hungry eat
one. You will be surprised by how immediate you are satiated, and how
cleansing and liberating on the body the exclusive consumption of such a
simple, perfect food like the apple really is. One can easily go a day
or two using this approach, often with the result of feeling completely
renewed and refreshed.


Source:-
http://www.greenmedinfo.com/blog/why-apple-one-worlds-most-healing-superfoods