Monday, 5 November 2012

The Pharmaceutical Giant in the Kitchen

A recent discovery by the Momsey has helped shift a new light on one of the pharmaceutical giants in the kitchen: the common, everyday apple.... Though berries, leafy greens and other colourful fruits and vegetables have been exalted for their super health benefits, attention should now be focused on the humble apple, a star in its own right. 
Apples have been an important ‘diet’ food in the lives of our dogs for  over 14 years.... It was the proverbial ‘an apple a day’ regimen begun, many years ago, out of a concern for our pets’ teeth and gums that made apples an important part of their daily diet. ... It’s funny how you start something for one reason and continue for another... Now, this dynamic fruit has been pushed to its nutritional limits with a recent discovery of a natural acid found in its peel that helps to build muscle and burn fat. 
When our 13 year old retriever, ‘puppy boy’, (88 pounds), began experiencing coughing spells recently, I began to have a renewed love affair with this common fruit knowing its power as a protective veil for lungs. l soon began to juice apples to address our pet’s periodic wheezing and coughing with 'apple juice'. ...  It would become his 'cough medicine’ whenever needed.... Then came this newest discovery proclaiming apples supremacy in combating muscle decline and fat accumulation, as we age.... 
In the Autumn 2012 issue of Living Well Naturally, a magazine published by Natures’ Emporium, a Canadian whole food market, the author of the article on apples, Dr. Mark Rosenberg, wrote about ursolic acid’s prominence in apple peels that reprograms genes to build muscle and burn fat.... This scientific discovery further reinforced the benefits of eating both the apple and its peel, something we have been told to do all of our lives, anyway. ... 
Apples are tops in health benefits! ... They are now juiced regularly for our dogs. ... Fewer and shorter coughing episodes have been noted since the 'juice' was added to our 13 year old's diet. ... A recent sprain he suffered made moving and getting up even more difficult. ... The formerly discarded apple peel and its pulp are now front and center at every meal for this reason, ( in addition to a recommended joint support powder)- helping to strengthen his muscles etc....  This new power of apple peels, supported by science, cannot be ignored....  Our dog, and his much younger companion, receive apple/carrot/celery peel in their food, the residue that remains from juicing...This fiber mixture is another added benefit to their daily diet. ...  (Seeds and stems are discarded).....Red delicious apples are used mostly because of their red peel.... (More red colour equals more anti oxidant value, I have learned)....
It is amazing what you can learn when you read  the ‘free’ magazines found in the ‘grocery store’...In Free Kittens, Puppies for Sale, I wrote about the seeming diminished, undervalued treatment of ‘free to a good home’ pets...Does a ‘Please Take One’ magazine also imply a diminished value of this free publication?.... We ignore ‘free’ magazines at our own peril.... It was this free publication that enlightened me to the awesome powers of the common apple...We don't know what we don't know!
I am now in awe of the apple, more than ever. It has always seemed to be the granddaddy of all fruits.  Now it is king and I am its humble servant!

  

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