Apples: stewed for breakfast (or any time….)
How you break-fast matters. Apples can help.
Particularly in the Autumn, when our digestive fire is naturally stoking back up for the winter to come, it’s wise to take a hint from nature and include apples in your daily. Did you know that just one apple is sometimes regarded as a bare minimum?
Apples in Autumn
Eating seasonally is one of the easiest ways to support the healthy changes that your yoga practice makes and helps you make off the mat. It’s often time and money saving and supports your body’s natural circadian rhythms.
Health Benefits of Apples
Breakfast is a good time to start with apples in Autumn.
Apples are in season
Protect your gut
Provide both soluble (like pectin) and insoluble fiber
Stabilize blood glucose
Provide powerful antioxidants and polyphenols: compounds in apples have been researched and found to guard against unhealthy or damaged cells replicating, inhibit the growth of cancer cells, block the uptake of glucose, guard against premature aging, enhance lung and colon health, guard against the harm of fats (oxidation). [Check out the footnotes on this article.]
And, they taste good without any sugar at all!
Health Benefits of Short Intermittent Fasting
First of all, let’s talk about that fast you’re breaking. Did you know that a 13 hour gap - barely more than 1/2 a day, most of which you’re asleep! - between last meal of one day and first of the next is associated a host of health benefits? Lower breast cancer rates, lower weight, lower HbA1C - a measure of average blood glucose over months.
13 hours overnight is a good target for normal, everyday life, as a baseline. This duration is good for year round. Do you have trouble fasting that long? Apples will help! The soluble and insoluble fiber will help you feel satisfied and make sure you’re not experiencing a sugar dump, or a drastic variation in your blood glucose and therefore insulin, resulting in wild energy fluctuations.
Apples for Breakfast: Malic Acid Benefits
So the first solid food in your gut is really setting a tone, and apples set the perfect one. Malic acid, highest in green apples, has been associated with decreased pain and enhanced digestion, particularly in those whose stomachs aren’t producing enough acid. 2-3 green apples per day provides enough malic acid to meet the dose administered in the pain and fibromyalgia studies. Not only does the malic acid help your stomach, but just past the stomach, the malic acid helps the liver with its functions and makes gallstones softer and more prone to passing easily or breaking up. And it increases saliva, the first digestive fluid your body uses to derive nutrients from your food! With the soluble and insoluble fiber, phytonutrients and portable package, what’s not to love?!
Stewed Apples
Stewed apples are even more digestible and retain all the health benefits. You can add spices that boost that power even more: think cinnamon, cloves, cardamom. You know I’m always going to give you the streamlined version, so while you can soak dried fruit overnight to add (think raisins for added sweetness (what?!) or apricots for tart sweetness), the very easiest thing to do is this:
1 serving
1 apple, diced (you can dice the whole thing if you want, or core it)
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4-1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp cardamom
pinch of cloves (or 2 whole ones)
1/4c water (if you’re adding almonds, walnuts or dried fruit, soak it in this overnight)
How to Stew Apples
Slurry the spices in the water and warm to just bubbling.
Stir the apple cubes in, with any nuts or dried fruit you’ve soaked.
Cover and cook over medium low heat 10-15 minutes.
That’s IT!
Mmmmmm!!!!!
Make this a prelude to breakfast or smash it on toast, drizzle over oatmeal, seed cereal or over french toast (you may not even want syrup!), with bacon, eggs - what do you put it with?! We’d love to hear your comment below!
Conclusion
Apples are in season for Autumn, making them a particularly healthy choice for your microbiome.
Apples contain a multitude compounds including specific forms of fiber, nutrients and malic acid that studies show have near and long term health benefits.
Apples help you feel full.
Apples are easy to include in your everyday Autumn diet.
Granny Smith apples are particularly good for their low sugar and higher malic acid contents.
Stewed apples are an easy way to jump start your digestion at the beginning of your day.
Personalized Recommendations
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