As flu season settles in on College Hill, sniffles can be heard in every lecture hall. In students’ curiosity as to how they can stay healthy, they may turn to an age-old adage: an apple a day keeps the doctor away.
The Herald asked experts in health and nutrition at Brown whether an apple a day could actually prevent students from getting sick.
“I’m going to call this (saying) partially true,” said Francesca Beaudoin PhD ’17, dean of the School of Public Health and professor of epidemiology and of emergency medicine.
Beaudoin pointed to a 2015 study published in the Journal of American Medical Association where researchers analyzed survey data of over 8,000 adults to determine whether or not apple consumption was associated with decreased physician visits.
“Part of the reason they did this is because sometimes these phrases that we say actually have good health advice, and sometimes they don’t,” Beaudoin said.
The study found that apples are not associated with fewer physician visits, according to Beaudoin.
But still apples have real benefits, she said, citing another study where some adults ate two apples a day for eight weeks and others drank a sugar-and-calorie-matched apple beverage. The participants who ate apples had lower total cholesterol and LDL — also known as “bad cholesterol” — than those who drank the apple beverage, according to Beaudoin. But she noted that decreased cholesterol does not necessarily translate to fewer doctor visits.
“I think what (the study) did demonstrate is that apples are a healthy food,” Beaudoin said. She added that eating foods rich in nutrients and fiber that are “beneficial” to metrics such as blood pressure and cholesterol “ultimately will impact whether or not you visit the doctor.”
Other Brown experts agree the saying has some merit, but that no single food is a cure-all.
As a fruit, apples are “incredibly nutrient dense,” but this does not mean they are “the golden vessel to immunity,” said Assistant Professor of Behavioral and Social Sciences Gabby Headrick. “If you just eat an apple a day and that’s all you’re eating, no way are you going to keep the flu away.”
Instead, students should be eating a range of nutrient-dense foods in “all colors of the rainbow” to help build antioxidant and immune defenses, Headrick said.
Students should aim for five servings of fruits and vegetables per day, Headrick added.
“Healthy eating really isn’t that complex,” Headrick said. “It’s just a lot of people really struggle to do it.”
Professor of Behavioral and Social Sciences Meredith Niles also explained that a healthy diet with various fruits and vegetables is “associated with better health outcomes in the long term.”
“There’s not a single best diet for all people, so this is part of a much broader health strategy to try to keep the doctor away,” Niles said.
Besides healthy eating, there are other habits that can keep students from visiting doctors.
Although Headrick does not claim to be an immunization expert, she said that flu shots protect both yourself and “your shared community.”
Niles shares this sentiment, saying the flu shot “is your best option for keeping the flu away.”
Additionally, the experts stressed the importance of getting enough sleep and staying physically active.
“Our body needs sleep to recover,” Headrick said. She also recommended finding methods of managing stress, whether that is through meditation or spending time with friends and family.
Beaudoin also recommends that students should “not just (be) sitting at (their) computer cranking out papers and doing analyses,” and that they instead spend time outside and exercising.
“If you’re eating an apple a day but not sleeping, or otherwise eating potato chips all day long, it’s not on its own probably going to entirely keep the doctor away,” Niles said.
Elizabeth Rosenbaum is a senior staff writer covering science and research.
