THis is a study from England. I would put in a note that anyone with diabetes should not choose Golden Delicious because it spikes your glycemic load.
John S
PDX OR
While all apples are high in antioxidants and nutrients, if you are on the quest to find the healthiest apple, researchers at the Eden Healthcare Technologies lab in Leicestershire, England, have determined the healthiest variety to be the Pendragon apple.
Research Study
A 2009 research study concerning the healthiest apple was presented at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society. Fifteen apple varieties were tested, including 12 organic varieties and three conventionally grown varieties. The apples were tested for various plant compounds, including those associated with lowering cholesterol and inflammation in the body. The tests measured the entire apple, including the peel. The results revealed the organic Pendragon apple, an apple that has been grown in England since the 12th century, as the top of the apple heap. The apple has similar coloring to that of crab apples, with light-red skin that turns slightly white at the apple's stem.
Runners Up
If Pendragon apples are not sold at your local grocer's, back-up options are available. Coming in after the Pendragon in terms of health were organic versions of the Golden Delicious, the Collogett Pippin apple, Ben's Red and Devonshire Quarrenden apples. Although these apples ranked highly in the researcher's tests, the Pendragon apple won out because it contained the highest levels in seven of the eight categories measured.
Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/article/39850 ... z2Z8o35z78
Hi John,
Thanks for sharing the article. I'd never heard of that that Pendragon apple, I wonder how it is (was) used.
By my way of thinking the healthiest apple is the one you like to eat. Forcing yourself to choke down a sour, bitter-skinned astringent mushy apple because its high in a particular nutrient or antioxidant (not saying that's the case for this one) can't be nearly as good for you as gleefully eating one or two apples of your choice a day whatever the variety.
Besides, typically somebody does some test for handful of nutrients that are in vogue a the time, tests a dozen varieties and declares one the winner. In this case it was 15 apples. What are the odds that one of these 15 is the highest in anything when compared to the thousands of varieties that exist.
Then the press gloms onto it and declares it the healthiest apple, leaving off the part that says "of the 15 we decided to test". And 20 years ago who knew what an antioxidant was. I remember reading something that regarded berries as basically empty calories. 10 years from now maybe we'll decide that lard fried potatoes are the healthiest food and french fries will be all the rage.
Blueberries are famous for having been declared the most healthy fruit because they are relatively high in antioxidants. But I'll bet that whatever test launched that media buzz didn't include aronia, black currants, goji, acai, black raspberries, pomegranate or any of the fruits that have since been declared the healthiest.
The apple came top in a test of 12 organic and three normally grown apples, beating rivals such as Golden Delicious, Royal Gala and Cox.
“Of all the organic varieties, Pendragon was the best apple variety and contained seven of the eight kinds of healthy components at the highest levels,” said pharmacist Michael Wakeman, who led the study and presented his findings to the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s annual conference in Manchester.
P.S. I hope this post doesn't come off as negativity aimed at you. It just hit on one of my pet peeves. I actually did enjoy reading the article and then trying to follow some of the references.
Hi Jafar,
You're absolutely right. We've got to be aware of the media effect. They want some new story that will get people excited, rich, angry, or triumphant. I agree that you shouldn't eat an apple you dislike rather than one you like. I think it's more important in choosing between two that you like. One of the factors influencing our health is that we simply eat much less fruit than people in England or in our past. I actually found this study while I was looking for a different one. Below I'm going to put the highly different conclusions some have come to in different studies, although I will say that in the studies I've seen that included crabapples by volume, crabapples have always won. I think it's because they have the higher peel to flesh ratio. If it's not by volume, perhaps Wolf River will win because it's so huge.
JOhn S
PDX OR
DIFFERENT CANADIAN STUDY RED DELICIOUS
The study, to be published in the June 29 issue of Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, compared apple varieties popular in Canada, some of which are available only regionally in the United States.
Red Delicious, which account for 27 percent of U.S. apple production, has more than six times the antioxidants as the bottom-ranked Empire variety. Northern Spy was No. 2, followed by Cortland, Ida Red, Golden Delicious, McIntosh and Mutsu.
And in every variety tested, the skins of the apples contained substantially higher levels of antioxidants than the flesh.
But if you simply can't bear to eat the peel, the sweet-tart Northern Spy ranks No. 1 for antioxidants in flesh alone. Cortland was second, followed by Red Delicious.
Tsao attributed the variations to differences in growing seasons, geography and genetic predispositions.
Though apples have significantly lower concentrations of antioxidants than other fruits, especially many berries, researchers say year-round availability and greater popularity might make them a better source for many people.
In the United States, apples are second only to bananas among popular fruits. The average adult ate about 16 pounds of fresh apples in 2003, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Jeffrey Blumberg, a professor of nutrition and antioxidant expert at the Friedman School of Nutrition at Tufts, praised the research, saying analyzing and ranking foods in this manner is key to understanding disease.
"This is the tool that epidemiologists need to look at diet-health relationships," he said. "One can ask a question such as, 'How many apples do you need to eat a day to prevent heart disease or keep the doctor away?"'
http://www.nysaes.cornell.edu/hort/fq/
http://www.nysaes.cornell.edu/hort/f...03/NYFQW04.pdf
A wide range in antioxidant content among different apple cultivars has also been found (Boyer and Liu, 2003/04). Fuji had the highest level of flavonoids, followed by Delicious, Northern Spy, Fortune, Gala, Liberty, Rome Beauty, Golden Delicious, Jonagold, Idared, Cortland, and Empire in decreasing order. Fuji also had the highest level of phenolics, followed by Delicious, Gala, Liberty, Northern Spy, Golden Delicious, Rome Beauty, Fortune, Jonagold, Idared, Cortland, and Empire in decreasing order. Similarly, MacLean, Murr, and DeEll (2003) showed that the antioxidant capacity of Empire was half that of Delicious apples.
Lee, Rupasinghe, and Jackson (2004) investigated the major phenolic profiles of eight Ontario-grown apple cultivars and found that the total antioxidant capacity, total phenols content, and flavonoids levels were the highest in Honeycrisp and Delicious, moderate in Idared, Spartan, Granny Smith, and Cortland, and the lowest in Crispin and Empire. Furthermore, apple peel contained 2 to 10-fold higher levels than the core and flesh tissue.
Australia: Pink Lady Cripps Pink
Granny Smith, Red Delicious, Gala.
Dr. Greger: Old list: Red Delicious, Granny Smith, Gala, Golden Delicious, Fuji
New List: Crabapples, Ida Red, Red Delicious, Honeycrisp, Granny Smith , Cortland, Braeburn, Gala, Golden Delicious, Empire, McIntosh, Fuji and Golden nugget at bottom of list.
http://nutritionfacts.org/vide.....est-apple/
PENDRAGONA dessert/cooker/cider. A very interesting tree and another favourite of my own with its small red apples and red flesh, red stems and reddish leaves and dark pink blossom making a very attractive tree. Season 2nd early to mid.
[url:94hae6xe]http://www.cornishappletrees.co.uk/7.html[/url:94hae6xe]
Thanks for the picture. Like crab apples, they noted that it was small. Also I would imagine that all red fleshed apples would have significant anthocyanins (antioxidants),
he says, trying to pretend like he's a real scientist.
No but seriously ladies and germs, I'm growing Grenadine, an Albert Etter cultivar, which is red-fleshed and doesn't get much disease pressure. I bet it would be up there if they checked it.
John S
PDX OR
My only comment regarding the English ‘competition’ is the fact their growing conditions are more like BC Canada than ‘here.’ We’re more like France… with a longer growing season, which I suspect allows for the richer development of any fruit (first ripening varieties are usually quite ‘watery’ compared to later, firmer fruit).
I’ve not been all that impressed with the ‘English’ apple varieties I’ve tasted or grown. They’re good ‘mid-season’ apples, but the dense and richest (my favorite for cider and ‘keeping’) wouldn’t ripen in their maritime climate…
Interesting ..competition though. I agree with jafarj in that basically, it’s just plain good to eat apples - period 
I just found this thread while googling the rutin content of apples. I haven't tracked down the actual study to see if they tested Rutin content or not, or how much there was, but they probably did. Having invested pretty heavily in red fleshed apples, I'm pretty stoked to find out that there is evidence to support what I already suspected, high antioxidant levels.
I suspect that we can go largely by taste. As my friend said, the actual flavors we like are often from those antioxidant compounds. The high flavors found in some apples, particularly I think the berry type flavors in those red fleshed apples, are no doubt due in part to that stuff. I think any good apple has at least some degree of bitterness, or maybe rather astringency, to the skin. A lot of very good apples have quite a lot of it, though it is definitely not as pronounced or common in modern cultivars. The Rutin content of apples if found almost entirely in the peel. Northern Spy may have more in the flesh, but it is a very highly flavored apple when it's at it's best. I think that is where sweet 16 gets it's intense flavor. They found organic apples to have more, but I'll bet dry farmed apples would have even many fold times more. I find a large difference in concentration of flavor and levels of astringency in apples which don't receive abundant water.
I"m also particularly interested in edible crabs. I've got a couple here that are pretty neat. They both have a pronounced bitter/astringent taste, but are tasty and fun to eat. One is maypole, which is also red fleshed. The first year it fruited I wasn't crazy about it, but this year it grew on me. I'll bet those crabs have very high antioxidant levels. This is particularly of interest to me lately in pursuit of solutions to some health issues where antioxidants are a recurring theme. If anyone has suggestions for crabs that are good for out of hand eating, I would like to try more of them. I have some others that haven't fruited yet, namely centennial.
I'll definitely be ramping up my apple intake a little more and chewing the peel very well to release the antioxidants. Turns out chewing things is also very important. Lack of chewing, due to a soft diet, is probably one of the main causes, if not the main cause, of the epidemic of poor facial development and malocclusion, as this eye opening video discusses. [url:3ag6d722]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4kTW17x7Yo[/url:3ag6d722]
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