Apple Adage

Let us turn our attention today to an important and timely inquiry: does an apple a day keep the doctor away? This apple adage is especially important at a time of year when Rosslyn’s orchard pumps up pomological generosity to the extreme.

It’s pretty tempting to grab a crispy fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil a couple of times a day. Such bounty. Such flavor. Such temptation…

And after all, these apples are good for me, right? Right?!?!

Perhaps. Perhaps not.

As you can see in the photograph above, there’s something about this chimerical apple adage that causes concern. This marriage of the knowledge of good and evil tastes divine, but its begun to blur my vision. Focused foreground; blurry background. The reverse too is true. When I bring the background into contrast as crisp as the apple, the fruit itself (and even my own hand holding it) appear fuzzy.

Best turn to the experts…

The aphorism, “An apple a day keeps the doctor away,” originated in Wales, first appearing in a publication in 1866 in a different rhyming format: “Eat an apple on going to bed and you’ll keep the doctor from earning his bread.” The saying reappeared in 1913 in its current form…[raising] the question of whether an apple a day actually keeps the doctor away—that is, is apple consumption associated with reduced health care use?

(Source: NIH National Library of Medicine)

If you have a surfeit of time, you might wish to click on that link and read the entire study. If not, here’s the conclusion.

Evidence does not support that an apple a day keeps the doctor away; however, the small fraction of US adults who eat an apple a day do appear to use fewer prescription medications.

(Source: NIH National Library of Medicine)

So there you have it. Does the apple adage hold up? Apparently not. But the prospect of fewer prescription medicines is a fairly convincing consolation, prize, don’t you think?

Cheers to a bountiful harvest!