"Apple Peels Put to the Test for Chronic Joint Pain"
Regular apple intake is associated
with all sorts of good things, like living longer,
particularly a lower risk of dying from cancer.
Here’s the survival curve of elderly women
who don’t eat an apple a day.
Ten years out, nearly a quarter died,
and 15 years out, nearly half were gone.
But, those who average like
a half an apple a day didn’t drop off as fast,
and those eating an apple a day—
more than 3 and a half ounces—
like a cup of apple slices,
stayed around even longer.
Yeah, but maybe people who eat apples
every day just happen to practice
other healthy behaviors
like exercising more, or not smoking,
and that’s really why they’re living longer.
Well, they controlled for most of that–
obesity, smoking status, poverty, diseases, exercise—
so as to compare apples to apples (so to speak).
But, what they didn’t control for
was an otherwise healthier diet.
Studies show that those who regularly
eat apples have higher intakes
of not just nutrients like fiber, found in the apples,
but they’re eating less added sugar,
less saturated fat—in other words,
they’re eating overall healthier diets;
and so, no wonder apple eaters live longer.
But is apple eating just a marker for healthy eating,
or is there something about
the apples themselves that’s beneficial?
You don’t know, until...
you put it to the test.
There are all sorts of fun studies
like this, where subjects were randomly
assigned in the morning to nothing,
a caffeinated energy drink, black coffee, or an apple,
given that athletes use a variety
of common strategies to stimulate
arousal, cognition, and performance
before their morning training.
Did the apple hold its weight?
Yes, appearing to work just as well
as the caffeinated beverages.
The problem with these kinds of studies though,
is they’re not blinded.
Those in the apple group knew
they were eating an apple,
and so, there may have been this expectation bias,
placebo effect, that made them unconsciously
give that extra bit of effort in the testing
and skew the results.
You just can’t stuff a whole apple into a pill.
That’s why researchers, instead,
test specific extracted apple components;
so, they can perform a double-blind placebo controlled study,
where half get the fruit elements,
half get the sugar pill,
and you don’t know until the end who got which.
The problem there, though, is that
you’re no longer dealing with a whole food,
removing the symphony of interactions
between the thousands of phytonutrients
in the whole apple.
Most of these special nutrients
are concentrated in the peel, though.
Instead of just dumping millions
of pounds of nutrition in the trash,
why couldn’t researchers just dry and powder the peels
into opaque capsules to disguise them
and then run blinded studies with that?
Even just a small amount could greatly
increase phytochemical content
and antioxidant activity.
The meat industry got the memo:
dried apple peel powder decreases microbial
expansion in meat and protects against
carcinogen production when you cook it.
And, one of the carcinogens formed
during the grilling of meat
is a beta carboline alkaloid, a neurotoxin,
which may be contributing to the
development of neurological diseases,
like Parkinson’s.
I did a video about it awhile ago.
Uncooked meat doesn’t have any;
the neurotoxin is formed when you cook it,
but you can cut the levels in half
by first marinating the meat with dried apple peel powder.
And also cuts down on the amount of
fecal contamination bacteria in the meat.
Fecal bacteria growing before and after
the addition of dried apple peel powder,
in pork, beef, and turkey.
Apple peels can also inhibit the formation
of genotoxic, DNA-damaging, heterocyclic amines,
cutting the levels of these cooked meat carcinogens
by up to more than half.
In view of the risks associated with consuming
these cancer causing compounds in meat,
there is a need to reduce exposure
by blocking HCA formation,
such as by adding apple powder
during the cooking of meats
to help prevent their production.
I mean, I can’t think of any other way to reduce exposure. (mocking)
What about consuming apple peels directly?
Dried apple peel powder was found
to exhibit powerful anti-inflammatory and antioxidant action,
but this was in mice.
Does it have anti-inflammatory properties in people?
You don’t know...
until you put it to the test.
A dozen folks with moderate loss of joint
range of motion and associated chronic pain
were given a spoonful of dried apple peels
a day for 12 weeks,
and pain scores dropped month after month,
and the range of motion improved
in their neck, shoulders, back, and hips.
Conclusion: consumption of dried apple peel powder
was associated with improved
joint function and pain reduction.
Why just “associated”?
Because there was no control group;
so, they might have all been
just getting better on their own,
or it could have been a placebo effect.
But hey, why not give apple peels a try,
by eating more apples.