Are You Eating Year Old Apples?

Apples, as well as other produce, don’t come with a label telling you when they were picked. So if you are eating apples from the grocery store, like many people in the United States do, to the buyer beware! You might think you are eating fresh and be sadly mistaken. The apples in your grocery store could be OVER A YEAR OLD. How can this be happening? Apples can be picked when they are slightly unripe and treated with a chemical called 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP), waxed, boxed, stacked and stored in a cold room for an average of 12 months!

These apples have a nickname in the industry. That nickname is birthday apples!
Aside from dietary fiber and natural sugars, apples are a vital source of polyphenols, which are rich antioxidants that help our bodies in numerous ways, including fighting cancer. The antioxidant activity in apples declines after only three months of storage in the cold. After a year, the antioxidant content is near to zero. And that’s BEFORE we start looking at flavor and texture.

What you can do is buy local fresh apples and buy them in season. In the United States, apples generally ripen between August and September. For you organic enthusiasts, you will be happy to know that organic apples are not allowed to be treated with1-methylcyclopropene.

So buy from a local farmer or from a farmers’ market and preferably organic. The less time between harvest and plate, the better the nutritional value will be. Why risk your health by consuming 1-methylcyclopropene on a year old apple?

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