Apples And Chocolate
One of our favorite cheat snacks of fall is the chocolate covered caramel apples from the Riverside Chocolate Factory in McHenry. I know for a fitness firm this seems insane, but we feel it’s only once a year that we get to sample these delectable treats!
Well, it turns out we really are not doing such a bad thing after all. We all know the old apple a day keeps the doctor away adage. Apples truly are good for you. They are delicious, easy to carry for snacking, low in calories, a natural mouth freshener and are inexpensive. Apples are both a source of both soluble and insoluble fiber. Soluble fiber such as pectin, helps prevent cholesterol build up in the lining of blood vessel walls, reducing the incident of arteriosclerosis and heart disease. The insoluble fiber in apples provides bulk in the intestinal tract, holding water to cleanse and move food quickly through the digestive system. It is a good idea to eat apples with their skin on. Almost half of the vitamin C content is just underneath the skin. Eating the skin also increased insoluble fiber content. Most of an apple’s fragrance cells are also concentrated in the skin and as they ripen, the skin cells develop more aroma and flavor.
Now the reason to dip them into chocolate!!! Flavonoids and polyphenols in chocolate can lower your risk of heart disease by 20% and keep bad cholesterol LDL, from oxidizing into an artery-damaging from. Stick to dark or semi-sweet. Although chocolate is a fruit, (since it’s made from the fruit of the cocoa tree), it’s classified as a vegetable.
So next time someone yells at you for eating too much chocolate, just tell them that you are really eating a fruit and a vegetable at the same time.