04/14/08 Apples Are Good!

Apples Are Good. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report. I usually eat an apple a day. I just like them and it's a good mid-morning snack I can eat at my desk. The old adage about an apple a day does cross my mind but now a new report has come out that will definitely make more people choose an apple a day. Alan Taylor, spokesperson for Pink Lady America says this new study from Australia has some great news for apple growers. TAYLOR: This particular study is a review of 10 years literature related to the nutritional aspects of apples and has pulled all the various studies together that have come out during that time and present a nutritional profile of apples which is very impressive. Apples along with cranberries, blueberries and many other fruits are packed with phytonutrients that can help fight many diseases. One of the main benefits shown in the study is that apples are exceptionally high in antioxidants. TAYLOR: To find out that apples score very high in that area is something that the industry itself will be promoting in the foreseeable future and they're also some other things in the study about cancer risk and lung function and heart disease risk related to the nutritional aspects of apples which are also very exciting. Taylor says the industry will be using this information as a major promotional tool. TAYLOR: Just like the blueberry people and the pomegranate people and some others have done in the industry and to use this to their advantage and Pink Lady America is going to be doing the same thing because when you have a report like this that compiles 10 years of literature which shows how healthy your product is you'd be crazy not to use that. That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.