Link #80: An Apple Can Wake You Up as Much as Coffee Can!

Jun 2, 2015

Link #80: An Apple Can Wake You Up as Much as Coffee Can!

Cored_Apples — Cored apples by theglobalpanorama cc2.0

For a long time, people believed that too much coffee was bad for health. However, in the last few years, the trend is changing because scientific studies have revealed the numerous benefits of coffee. In our last post, we explained how coffee can prevent the onset of Alzheimer’s disease and a number of other serious health ailments.

While coffee has gone from villain to hero status in recent years, apples have always been loved by health freaks. We even created the idiom ‘an apple a day keeps the doctor away’ to show the health benefits of apples. However, there are less known qualities of apples too. For example, did you know that an apple can wake you up in the morning as much as a cup of coffee can, if not more?

Are Apples Better Than Coffee at Waking You Up?

Apple_vs_coffee_collage — Image credit: “Jazz” Apples by LoopZilla CC BY-SA 2.0 and Coffee with Cream by Sharon & Nikki McCutcheon cc2.0

It’s very hard to quantify how well a food item performs at waking you up because every individual’s metabolic rate is different. However, theoretically speaking, an apple will, at the very least, be able to wake you up as nicely as a cup of coffee every morning.

You most probably know that coffee can wake you up so well in the morning because it contains caffeine which fast-tracks the body’s processes. Since apples can perform the task as nicely as coffee can, does this mean that apples also contain a lot of caffeine? And if they do, then do they have more caffeine than coffee or less?

How Much Caffeine Do Apples Contain When Compared to Coffee?

It’s a myth that apples contain caffeine. This myth exists because apples can wake you up as much as coffee can. However, while apples are as good as coffee at waking you up, the processes behind the two are different.

Coffee wakes you up because of its caffeine content while apples wake you up because of their sugar content. In coffee, you add sugar, but in apples natural (fruit) sugars are present.

The sugar you add to your coffee is processed and very easy to digest by your body. This means that your body burns through the sugar quickly, you most probably get a quick sugar high, and then you crash down again.

In contrast, apples contain natural sugars which take longer to digest. This means that the wakefulness that apples create is much more long lasting than that created by coffee. Moreover, because coffee’s sugar is artificial and quick burning, an apple turns out to be much healthier than a cup of coffee.

Apples Will Help You Breathe Better

Large_Scale_Lungs_Framed_Anatomy_Embroidery — Image credit: Hey Paul Studios cc2.0

Apples have many health benefits. Another of their benefits is that they can help you breathe better. For example, just eating two apples a week will help you breathe better and make you more resistant to allergens. Consequently, your chances of developing asthmatic attacks will drop.

Similarly, if you were to eat five or more apples a week then you would see a significant difference in your breathing capacity. In fact, your lungs will become healthier and more resistant to the threat of lung cancer and even some respiratory diseases.