It’s apple season in Maine! Heck, it’s harvest season in Maine, one of the best seasons ever! Apples have lots of good things, and deserve to be part of our daily regimen. They’ve been associated with decreased cancer risk and improved lung function. The apples have antioxidants in the skin of the apple. For the highest amount of nutrition you have to eat the skin. This means finding organic or low spray apples. Ask at the orchard or produce department- your voice counts and stores respond to demand. Do wash the apples by scrubbing them with your hands or a scrubber. Fruit sprays etc. have not been evaluated by the FDA and are expensive and IMO unnecessary. Apples contain pectin also mostly under the skin, a soluble fiber (like oatmeal) that helps move material through the intestine . Apples are members of the rose family of plants. Their seeds are poisonous when chewed in quantity, but you’d have to eat 18 apples to get a fatal dose. Swallowing a seed or two will pass through without harm.
