Good Morning McKinley!

We’ve all heard the saying, “An apple a day keeps the Doctor away”, right?   The benefits actually go beyond avoiding a visit to the Doctor.  Some of these benefits you may already be aware of.  For instance, the fiber in the apple can keep you feeling fuller longer and the sweetness of the apple can satiate a sugar craving that may have led you to indulge in a piece of cake or hand full of cookies :).

I’m sure the last time you ate an apple you weren’t thinking about the fat burning effects it was going to have on your body, were you?   Well, according to a study conducted by scientist at the University of Iowa, apples can actually help you burn fat and hold on to lean muscle mass because of a pentacyclic triterpeoid (a natural chemical) called ursolic acid which is found in apple peels.  Here are a few of the benefits:

•   Helps burn fat.  How?  Increases brown fat cells.  You might be thinking “Yikes” but this is actually a good thing.  I’ll keep this simple…there are 2 types of body fat, white fat and brown fat.  The purpose of white fat is to store fat.  You could refer to this fat as inactive.  The purpose of brown fat is to burn calories and keep you warm.  You could refer to this fat as active.  To gain a better understanding of the these fats, click the link below:

http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/the-truth-about-fat

• Reduce muscle atrophy and stimulate muscle growth.  This will also lead to greater fat burning potential…the more lean muscle you have, the more fat you will burn throughout the day 🙂

   http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S155041311100177X

•   Reduce blood sugar levels, cholesterol and triglycerides!!

How many apples do you really need to eat to experience the benefits?  Well, it really depends on the person.  In the article I’ve linked below, a woman went from eating no apples daily to eating one apple daily and gradually lost 20lbs.  She did not disclose the rest of her weight loss regimen, but did attribute some of her success to eating an apple a day.  Click the link below to read her story:

 http://voices.yahoo.com/apples-health-weight-control-12548795.html.  

There are some ursolic acid supplements on the market today, but I don’t know enough about them to say a supplement would be better than consuming it from a natural source.  For now, I would recommend getting your daily dose from foods that naturally contain it.  If you are going to try an ursolic acid supplement, PLEASE check in with your Doctor before you start taking a high potency supplement.

 

Other foods that contain ursolic acid are cranberries (with skin), prunes, basil, bilberries, peppermint, rosemary, thyme, sage and oregano (the pictures above are in the order of the foods just listed).  Ursolic acid is potent in apple peels, but according to www.ursolicare.com, sage holds the greatest concentration of extractable ursolic acid.  I personally don’t eat sage leaves daily so I will probably stick to an apple or 2 a day 🙂. 

If you’re interested in reading more about apples and the benefits of ursolic acid, click the links below:

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304830704577497111487022018

http://yourbrainonbliss.com/Blog/?p=1456

Yours in Health and Wellness,

Meredith