March 23rd 2026
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WellBeing Magazine
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Apples are a popular fruit worldwide, which is fortunate as they have many health benefits. In this deep dive, we look at the varieties available, the nutrition qualities, how you can grow them at home and how you can use them in your kitchen.
In the April 2025 edition of the journal Nature Genetics, researchers from Pennsylvania State University published a finding indicating the plant genus Malus dates back at least 60 million years.
The apple tree belongs to that genus and is known as Malus domestica, part of the rose (Roasaceae) family, and is one of the most widely grown domesticated trees.
Many fruiting plants in this family have small fruits, such as cherries, raspberries and roses. These small fruits are easily swallowed by birds, which disperse the seeds. It is not so easy for your average robin to get its beak around an apple, so apples have evolved to be tasty and appealing to larger mammals. The evidence suggests that prior to the last Ice Age, wild horses, deer and other megafauna would have eaten apples and dispersed the seeds. Today, the largest consumer of apples is humans, and we have been eating them for a long time.
Depictions of apples in classical art date back at least 2000 years, and seeds from archaeological sites across West Asia and Europe suggest that wild apples have been part of the human diet for at least 10,000 years.
Recent genetic studies have shown that the modern apple is probably a hybrid of at least four wild apple populations that were traded across the Silk Road. In fact, much of the genetic material of the modern apple originated in the heart of the ancient trade routes in the Tien Shan Mountains of Kazakhstan. There are now more than 7500 cultivars of this deciduous tree grown around the world. In Australia, 84 per cent of households regularly buy apples and the average Australian eats 10kg of apples per year.
Since they are so popular, it is well worth looking at what apples are available, how they affect you and how you can use them at home.
Varieties
There are 15 apple varieties grown in Australia and they each have their own character. Some of the more popular varieties are: Granny Smith This apple gets its name from suburban Sydney gardener Maria Ann Smith, who found the seedlings growing in a pot in her home. “Granny Smith” recognised the unique value of these apples and began using them in her cooking and marketing them.
Believed to be descended from French crab apples, Granny Smiths have a green skin and a crisp, tart, white flesh. Since the flesh collapses on cooking, they are best for sauces and purées.
Golden delicious
Golden delicious apples originated in the USA in the early part of the 20th century. Although the skin is yellowy green and therefore similar to a Granny Smith, the flesh maintains its shape while cooking, making it wonderful for caramelised apple desserts and sautéing. Despite sharing part of its name with red delicious, the only link between the two varieties is the brothers who marketed them.
Red delicious
Red delicious apples date back to the 1880s and again come from the USA. The red skin and crisp, juicy flesh of the red delicious make them an excellent snacking apple, but the tender flesh does not do well when cooked.
Pink lady
The pink lady is a relative newcomer, originating in the Margaret River region (WA) in the late 1970s. It was the result of a natural cross pollination between golden delicious and Lady Williams apples. The pink skin and juicy flesh are great for snacking or cooking.
Fuji
No prizes for guessing that this apple originated in Japan.
The crisp flesh has a high sugar content, making Fujis an appealing snack, but they also hold together in cooking.
Jonathan
The Jonathan apple hails from New York and dates to the 1820s. It was once known by the cumbersome name “New Esopus Spitzenburg”. Jonathans have a crisp, creamy yellow flesh that will break down slightly when cooked. They have a slightly spicy flavour that makes them ideal for juicing.
Royal gala
Royal gala apples have skin that is a combination of reddish-orange and yellow stripes, with a taste that is a balance of sweet and tart. They date back to the 1930s in New Zealand and are the result of a cross between a Golden Delicious and a Kidd’s Orange Red.
Royal galas are better eaten raw than cooked.
Growing
Apple trees are usually available for planting in winter.
They grow in most climates but perform better in cooler zones. Apple trees like a sunny but sheltered position and need free-draining soil that’s been prepared with compost and well-rotted manure. Add plenty of manure in spring and autumn. Mulch with pea straw to retain moisture, keeping mulch well away from the trunk. Keep the growing area weed-free and water regularly, especially during fruiting. Prune to shape and promote fruiting.
If you have limited space, dwarf apples are a good option and grow well in pots. Apple varieties fruit from January to June. You can tell your apples are starting to ripen when some fruit falls to the ground, otherwise just pick one and sample for taste. Remove any fallen apples and put them in the bin to stop disease spread.
An apple a day … For a long time now, apples have been regarded as a health-promoting food. In an article in the American Medicine journal of 1927, it was said that apples are “therapeutically effective in all conditions of acidosis, gout, jaundice, rheumatism, all liver and gallbladder troubles, and nervous and skin diseases caused by sluggish liver, hyperacidity and states of autointoxication.”
Whether apples will help if you intoxicate yourself remains a moot point, however there is ample evidence that apples are very good for you. They contain vitamin C, quercetin, antioxidant polyphenols, and the skin provides fibre in the form of pectin.
Antioxidant power
A study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association involved more than 20,000 adults with an average age of 41. None of them had a history of heart disease at the beginning of the study, and they were all followed for a period of 10 years. In that decade, 233 of the participants experienced a stroke. All of the participants filled in food frequency questionnaires and their consumption of fruits and vegetables was classified into the following colour groups:
- Cabbages, lettuces and dark-green leafy vegetables
- Orange and yellow (most of which were citrus fruits)
- Red and purple (most of which were red vegetables)
- White (apples and pears made up 55 per cent of this group)
The researchers then matched risk of stroke against consumption of the various “colour” groupings. They found that stroke risk was not impacted by consumption of red/purple or yellow/orange fruits. However, a high intake of white-flesh fruit led to a 52 per cent reduction in stroke risk when compared to low white fruit intake. There was a nine per cent reduction for every 25g daily increase in white fruit consumption. An average apple weighs around 120g and so an apple a day would take around 50 per cent offyour stroke risk. The reason for this is that whiteflesh fruits like apples are both rich in the antioxidant quercetin and are good sources of fibre such as pectin, which can lower blood fats.
Cut cholesterol and lose weight
We know that apples are a source of pectin, a type of fibre that can have beneficial effects on blood fats.
Apples also contain polyphenols that have antioxidant effects, improve fat metabolism and reduce inflammation. You would expect then that apples might do good things for your cholesterol levels and studies suggest that this is the case.
In one study published in the Journal of Functional Foods, the subjects were divided into three groups: one group ate either a red or Golden Delicious apple each day for four weeks; another group took a pill with 194mg of antioxidant polyphenols daily; and the third group took a placebo. In the four weeks of the study, an apple a day was found to reduce oxidised LDL cholesterol levels by 40 per cent. This was significantly more than the effect of the polyphenol pill and, according to researchers, makes apples better at decreasing the oxidation of LDL than other potent antioxidant foods like tomatoes, green tea and the spice curcumin. It also seems from these results that it is more than the antioxidant content of apples that has the effect. So, it is probably the entirety of the apple.
In another study, published in the journal of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, women who ate 75g of dried apples daily for a year had a 23 per cent reduction in bad LDL cholesterol after six months. They also had a four per cent increase in good HDL cholesterol.
Despite adding around 1000 kilojoules to their daily energy consumption via the apples, these women lost an average 1.5kg during the 12 months of the study. It might be the pectin from the apples making the women feel full, but another recent study has suggested an alternative way in which apples might help keep the weight off .
Ursolic acid
A study published in PLoS ONE has suggested that an ingredient from apple peel can protect against obesity. The study involved feeding two groups of mice the same high-fat diet for three weeks. The only difference was that one group was fed ursolic acid from apple peel in their food as well. By the end of the study, they found that the mice fed ursolic acid actually ate more food but gained less weight and their blood sugar stayed at near-normal levels, even though their physical activity was no greater than the mice in the other group. There was also no sign of fatty liver disease in the ursolic acid group. This means that not only does ursolic acid help prevent weight gain, it also protects against some of the risk effects of weight gain like diabetes and liver damage. Further examination showed that the ursolic acid mice had more skeletal muscle, leading to increased strength and endurance. Eating your apples with the skin on to increase your ursolic acid intake appears to be a good idea.
Using your apples
Chopped apple makes an outstanding addition to your cheese plate. Remember, lightly brushing cut apple with lemon juice will slow the browning process. Shaved apples make a tasty addition to many salads. If you are making a meal of mashed potato and pork chops, or even sausages and mash, then some puréed (or mashed) apple takes the meal to another level. When it comes to dessert, of course, the possibilities are endless, with apples making divine contributions to pies, strudels, cheesecakes, crumbles and more.
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