Old apple varieties
An apple a day, keeps the doctor away
Age before beauty! Apples of old varieties are healthy all-rounders
The apple is one of the oldest wild and cultivated fruit species. Tradition has it that the ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans appreciated the apple and gave it to the deceased on their last journey. However, the apple variety suffers.
New apple varieties = increasing the risk of allergies
As healthy and tasty as the various apple varieties are, they can be very dangerous for allergy sufferers. Tingling and itching in the mouth are the first signs of an allergic reaction and this can often lead to sharpness of breath. The reason for this is too low a concentration of polyphenols in the apple. Polyphenols are secondary plant substances that combine with the allergy-triggering proteins in the apple, making it much more tolerable. Polyphenols have a similar effect in the organism – they intercept free oxygen radicals and render them harmless.
Old apple varieties usually contain significantly more polyphenols than the new ones. This is because these secondary plant substances give the apple its sour taste and with the air quickly makes it brown and unsightly when bitten. Those were two unpopular characteristics which, together with the polyphenols, were largely bred out of the new varieties. As with everything, beauty has its price – the new apple varieties are prettier and sweeter, but they trigger allergies much faster and cause a significant increase in the number of allergy sufferers.
Since most proteins are located below the apple skin and change when heated, it makes sense for allergy sufferers to peel and boil the apple. Apple puree, for example, is virtually allergen-free.
New apple varieties that should be avoided are:
- Elstar
- Jonagold
- Golden Delicious
Go for old apple varieties!
In addition to important vitamins and polyphenols, the old varieties contain more valuable fibre such as cellulose and pectin. During the digestive process, these are able to bind heavy metals, cholesterol and other waste products to themselves that can then be excreted. Old apple varieties have yet another advantage – they contain more vitamin C than new ones. If you prefer local apples, they come into the shop with a higher vitamin C content than imported goods simply because they do not have to travel long distances.
Here are some old varieties:
- Alkmene
- Boskop
- Berlepsch
- Cox-Orange
- Glockenapfel
- Goldparmäne
- Gravensteiner
- Jakob Fischer
- Jonathan
- Prinz Albrecht von Preußen
- Santana
- and many more.
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