The Rittenhouse Review

A Philadelphia Journal of Politics, Finance, Ethics, and Culture


Wednesday, May 25, 2005  

AN APPLE A DAY
It Figures

Go figure. The least-reliable and indeed worst-tasting of popular varieties of apples, the so-called red delicious, has been found to be the most healthful, at least as measured by antioxidant content. That’s according to a new study by researchers at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Guelph, Ontario (a government agency), as reported by the Scripps Howard News Service:

Canadian researchers analyzing eight popular varieties found that the old standby, red delicious, and an apple called northern spy contain more disease-fighting antioxidants in their skin and flesh than any other studied.

Red delicious had more than twice the antioxidant activity as empires, which had the least activity of the eight.

The study included eight varieties -- red delicious, McIntosh, Cortland, northern spy, Ida red, golden delicious, Mutsu, and empire -- all grown under similar conditions on the same Ontario farm.

Helpfully, and thankfully, the study’s leader, Rong Tsao said, “Eating any apple is better than eating no apple at all.”

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