It’s coming up on Fall, and all of the local orchards are having their “Apple Festivals,” in celebration of the ongoing apple harvest. This time of year is always a blast, because we take the kids to the festivals where they can run around and play. They generally want to pick apples, and knowing how many calories are in an apple, its an easy decision to try encouraging the kids to keep them in the house over packaged snacks, so we’re game. Invariably, we end up picking up locally made apple cider as well. Over the last few days, my wife and I started wondering about the possible health benefits of apple cider, as compared to apple juice.
Apple Cider For Nutrition
The process for making apple juice and apple cider are very similar, with both products starting from ripe apples. For the best health benefits, you should buy organic to reduce exposure to pesticides. The apples are stored for 1-2 weeks, during which time the apple “matures” and the skin softens. Once the fruit is matured, the apples are pressed to remove the juice. At this phase, separation of the sediment and pasteurization yields traditional apple juice, which is a staple fruit drink in many U.S. households. Ours included.
If the pulp, also known as pomace, is left in the mixture, then the product is called apple cider. With a sugar composition of about 74% fructose, the mixture includes a variety of organic compounds that contribute to flavor, and may exhibit a variety of health effects. Studies have shown apple cider to contain the antioxidants chlorogenic acid, epicatechin, and phenols. It also contains organic acids such as L(-)malic acid, shikimic acid,and quinic acid. All of this means apple cider has the potential to be a rich source of antioxidants.
Apple cider is known as “sweet” when served immediately, but it can be also be fermented. The process of fermenting will occur naturally, in the presence of wild yeasts, or it can be controlled by introducing so-called “pure” yeasts. Fermenting reduces the sugar content, producing alcohol and a mixture of nitrogen and phosphorus-based compounds. This also leads to an increase in malic acid, lactic acid, and succinic acid.
It’s important to know that unpasteurized apple cider is fairly common, particularly from small producers. The apple cider industry as a whole came under fire in the late 1990′s after outbreaks of e. coli. were attributed to the consumption of unpasteurized apple cider. Producers contend that pasteurizing alters the flavor, and independent studies have confirmed this fact. It’s been shown that pasteurizing also produces a number of organic compounds, including trace amounts of benzaldehyde and tetrahydrofuran, both of which are actually toxic at higher concentrations. One alternative to pasteurizing is the addition of sulfur dioxide, which controls wild yeasts, but may not be as effective as pasteurizing.
It’s obvious that apple cider has the potential to impart a number of nutritional and health benefits, primarily by providing a variety of antioxidants. But careful attention should be paid to the handling, because the dangers associated with consuming unpasteurized apple cider are very real. I know that connoisseurs of apple cider will say pasteurizing detracts from the experience and flavor of the “real thing.” Maybe its true, and if so I’ll consider myself guilty as charged. As far as I’m concerned, its not worth the risk.
Sources
Cider and Labeling
I’ve never been a big juice fan, but love apple juice. Cider is pretty good too, and always takes me back to when I was a kid. We’d go to a tree farm at Christmas, and they always had hot cider for us. Great times.