“An apple a day keeps the doctor away” is a bit exaggerated, but apples do have high nutritional value, and eating them regularly has certain benefits for the stomach, cardiovascular, and cerebrovascular.
However, many people are confused about when to eat apples. The rumor says “golden apples in the morning, silver apples at noon, poisonous apples in the evening”, is that really true?
From the perspective of nutritional value, whether it is eaten in the morning, lunch or evening, the nutritional value of apples has not changed, so it is safe to eat at night. But how to choose, varies from person to person~
1 eat in the morning to restore energy
After eating apples, the fructose in it will soon be converted into glucose and absorbed by the body, helping to restore energy. At the same time, the pectin and other substances in apples can also promote intestinal peristalsis and improve bowel movements.
However, it is not recommended to eat on an empty stomach in the morning for people with hyperacidity or stomach diseases themselves, otherwise it may cause or aggravate discomfort such as acid reflux.
Eat before meals to lose weight
On the one hand, many of the nutrients in fruits are water-soluble, and it is easier to be digested and absorbed by the stomach and intestines when eaten before meals; For those who want to lose weight, they can better control their food intake.
3 two time periods should not be eaten
①Do not eat immediately after meals
Eating fruit immediately after a meal will affect digestive function, especially for the elderly. Eating fruit immediately after a meal for a long time is easy to cause constipation.
After food enters the stomach, it takes 1 to 2 hours to digest before it can be slowly excreted. If you eat fruit immediately after a meal, it will be blocked in the stomach by the food that arrives first, which is equivalent to increasing the digestive burden. , which can easily cause abdominal distension, constipation and other symptoms.
Even if you want to eat fruit after a meal, you should eat it 1 hour later.
②Don’t eat before going to bed
You can eat apples at night, but don’t wait until you are about to go to bed before eating – eating before going to bed will increase the burden on the stomach to a certain extent; especially for people with poor gastrointestinal function, the slow down of gastrointestinal motility during sleep is more likely to cause The retention of food in the stomach may even induce excessive secretion of gastric acid, causing acid reflux and even gastric diseases such as gastritis.
If you really want to eat, it is best to eat it two hours before bedtime.
Eating apples 30 minutes before meals is more conducive to lowering postprandial blood sugar
An experiment compared the level of blood sugar response by eating rice directly, eating rice and apples at the same time, eating apples for 30 minutes before eating rice, and three control groups.
In the end, it was concluded that eating only white rice had the highest blood sugar response, while the other two eating methods were beneficial for blood sugar control:
①Eating white rice and apples at the same time reduced the area under the blood sugar curve by 23% in the first two hours. ② For the group that ate apples 30 minutes before meals, the area under the blood sugar curve in the first two hours decreased the highest (up to 51%), and the blood sugar fluctuations within 4 hours after meals were also reduced by half. Note: The area under the blood glucose curve is the continuous blood glucose monitoring system. The area between the monitored blood glucose curve and the target blood glucose curve can more comprehensively analyze the time and degree of blood glucose changes.
The impact of apples on blood sugar mainly comes from the following nutrients:
3 components of 2 apples are good for blood sugar control
①Apple is rich in chromium, which can activate insulin, improve the efficiency of glucose entering cells, and is an important blood sugar regulator;
②After pectin absorbs water and expands in the human digestive system, it will wrap carbohydrates, cholesterol, etc. in the food, and delay the absorption, thereby helping to maintain the stability of blood sugar after meals;
③The flavonoids in apples can reduce the inflammatory response, which is also good for controlling the three highs.
The Harvard School of Public Health has tracked the eating habits of 200,000 people for 24 years and found that those who ate at least 5 apples a week had a lower risk of diabetes than those who never ate apples twenty three%. Therefore, you may wish to incorporate apples into your daily diet.
Should you peel an apple or not? This topic has also been debated for a long time – people who don’t peel the apple think that the nutrition of the apple peel is good, and it is a waste; those who want to peel the apple think that there are wax and pesticide residues on the apple peel, and eating it is not good for the health. Do you want to peel it?
1 apple peel is indeed higher in certain nutrients than apple meat
According to USDA data:
①Dietary fiber in apple flesh is 1.3g/100g, apple peel is 12.14g/100g;
②The potassium content in apple flesh is 90mg/100g, and apple peel is 257.57mg/100g;
③The content of vitamin C in apple flesh is 4mg/100g, and apple peel is 9.91mg/100g;
④The content of vitamin K in apple flesh is 0.6μg/100g, and apple peel is 16.3μg/100g;
……
In general, not peeling apples preserves more of the nutritional value of the apples. However, it should be noted that if too much pesticides and fertilizers are applied to the apple during the planting process, there may be residues on the apple skin, so it should be carefully washed.
2 apples have wax, but don’t worry too much
The “wax” on apples comes from two main sources:
①Homemade
Fruit wax is equivalent to the “clothing” of the fruit, which can isolate external microorganisms, pesticides, viruses, etc., and has a protective effect on the fruit, and is harmless to the human body.
②manually beat
The apples after picking are marked with edible wax in order to delay the evaporation of water and retain the fragrance. This is in compliance with regulations and is safe and harmless.
When buying apples, you can bring a paper towel and wipe the surface of the apple with the paper towel. If there is color on the paper towel, it may be industrial wax. Edible wax is colorless and odorless, and the color cannot be wiped off. If you are really worried, peel it and eat it.
TIP: Rinse apples with baking soda, alkali, or blanch in hot water to remove some of the pesticide residue and wax.
1 eat 1 per day
The “Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents” recommends eating 200-400 grams of fruit per day, which is basically enough for a large apple.
2 eat an apple, it takes 15-20 minutes
The best time to eat an apple is 15-20 minutes.
Because the organic acids in apples can inhibit oral bacteria to a certain extent, let the apples stay in the mouth for a longer time, so that the organic acids and the oral cavity have sufficient contact time, which is more beneficial to the oral environment.
In addition, apples are eaten too fast and chewed insufficiently, and the protective effect of the gastrointestinal tract will be compromised.
3 eat raw apples for constipation and cooked apples for diarrhea
Apple contains tannic acid, pectin, dietary fiber and other special substances, so it has the dual effect of antidiarrheal and laxative.
Unheated raw pectin softens stools and acts as a laxative with dietary fiber; while boiled pectin not only absorbs bacteria and toxins, but also has astringent and antidiarrheal properties.
Therefore, it is recommended that patients with constipation eat more fresh apples, while patients with diarrhea may wish to cook apples to eat. In addition, for people with digestive problems themselves, boiled apples can reduce the irritation to the stomach.
(Health Talk)