An apple a day seems to have some more scientific support to back up the claim that apples are very good for you. So Grandma may have been right all those years? In a recent study in the U.K. it was found that children who consumed apple juice were less likely to have symptoms of asthma compared to children who did not consume apple juice. These findings support the idea of a diet rich in fruits and vegetables is good for one's diet.
Researchers, led by Peter Burnley from the National Heart Group & Lung Institute at Imperial College, performed a population-based survey of 2,640 children aged between five and ten and found that regular consumption of apple juice was associated with a 47 per cent reduction in wheezing was carried out in Greenwich (South London, UK). Information about asthma symptoms and fruit consumption was obtained by means of a questionnaire. After controlling for potential confounding variables, eating bananas at least once a day (compared with less than once a month) was negatively associated with current wheeze (odds ratio 0.66; 95% confidence interval 0.44-1.00) and ever wheeze (0.69 (0.50-0.95)), but not with ever asthma (0.80 (0.56-1.14)). Drinking apple juice from concentrate at least once a day (compared with less than once a month) was also negatively associated with current wheeze (0.53 (0.34-0.83)), weakly associated with ever wheeze (0.74 (-0.54-1.02)), but not associated with ever asthma. Consumption of apples, other fruits and orange juice was not significantly associated with asthma symptoms. No association was found between eating fresh apples and asthma symptoms in the study population, but some evidence was found to suggest that a higher consumption of apple juice from concentrate and bananas may protect against wheezing in children.
According to the American Lung Association, almost 20m Americans suffer from asthma. The condition is reported to be responsible for over 14m lost school days in children, while the annual economic cost of asthma is said to be over $16.1bn.
Casey McConnell is the founder and owner of http://www.zoejuice.com An Organic apple juice, peach nectar drink with whey protein isolate.
