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Cooked apple or pear is tangy, sour, and sweet all at the same time, and the addition of whole cloves brings a refreshing and warming element to this breakfast or snack item.
There's no added sugar, but the taste is like a burst of sweet and sour in the mouth with an underlying warmth from the spicy clove.
The 5-minute cooking time ensures that the apple is soft, but not mushy like applesauce, which means that you can still bite into the apple for a satisfying chew.
Apples and pears are high in fiber that will make its way down to your colon to feed your good gut bacteria.
I especially like drinking the cooking liquid, which tastes like hot apple cider, and the quarter cup or so that's left after 5 minutes of simmering is just enough to satisfy.
You could also save this liquid and use it for soups, oatmeal, other grain cereals, or as a natural sweetener for tea.
How to make
To make cooked apple or pear, start ½ a cup of water simmering on the stove with 2-3 cloves.
Meanwhile, slice one apple or pear into four, and remove the cores and the skins.
Add the 4 pieces into the simmering water and cover.
Cook for 5 minutes.
Transfer into a bowl. Allow to cool slightly, and enjoy.
For some people, eating an apple right out of the fridge can be cold and shocking to the system, particularly in the morning when your digestive organs are still waking up.
An apple can also be difficult to digest, due to its abundant fiber, and leathery skin.
Cooking an apple makes it a lot easier to digest, and removing the skin also helps with digestibility.
Raw apples are also more on the astringent side, which can provoke dehydration and aggravate dry stools.
Cooking reduces that astringency and brings out more of the sugars. In fact, cooked apples can have a mild laxative effect.
Apples are loaded with pectin, which is a type of soluble fiber that binds to fat and aids in its elimination from the body.
This is really supportive for anyone that has a sensitive digestive system, autoimmune condition, or acidic stomach.
There's a beautiful benefit in the natural sugar of a cooked apple. It's naturally sweet, and yet it also helps to regulate blood sugar and cholesterol.
Along with the sweet, there's a natural sour taste that greatly supports digestion by increasing gastric secretions.
A juicy digestive tract helps to stimulate peristalsis, or the movement of food, which can reduce gas and bloating.
Warms you up
This cooked apple dish is especially beneficial during the cold winter months. Let it be your friend on dark mornings.
Cloves open up your pores to induce sweating, and they open up your blood vessels, which supports blood circulation to the extremities to help keep you warm ... but not too warm.
Cloves are only mildly pungent, and stimulate digestion without aggravating people who tend to feel hot.
If you have any tooth pain you can chew on the clove after finishing your apple and it will help.
This 5-minute dish is naturally sweet and sour, while 2-3 whole cloves add warmth and digestive support to this breakfast or snack dish.
Print Recipe
Ingredients
½cupwater
1apple or pear, cored and peeled
2-3whole cloves
Instructions
Choose your smallest saucepan. Add ½ cup water and bring to a boil on medium heat.
Meanwhile, cut the apple into quarters. Remove the cores and peel the skins. Add peeled apples to hot water along with 2-3 cloves.
After the water comes to a boil, reduce the heat, cover, and set a timer for 5 minutes.
Transfer to a serving bowl and enjoy right away after the apples cool slightly. Drink the water with the apples, or reserve and use in cooked soups or cereals, or as a natural sweetener in herbal tea.
Both cooked and raw apples are healthy. Raw apples provide fibre, Vitamin C, and Potassium, and may reduce cardio-vascular disease risk for example. But when apples are cooked, they also release extra pectin – a special form of fibre.
“When apples are cooked, these soluble fibers—which act like prebiotics and feed your gut microbiota (good bacteria)—break down and release higher amounts of pectin, which makes them easier to digest and helps your good gut bacteria thrive by getting rid of toxins and reducing inflammation.”
Beyond tasting delicious, they are also a powerful nutritional duo. Cooking apples releases pectin, a special form of fiber, that helps to repair and maintain the intestinal mucosal lining, promote healthy gut bacteria, and reduce inflammation.
Apples that are grown primarily to be eaten raw are known as table apples, dessert apples and eating apples. While these varieties can be used for cooking, they're best enjoyed fresh as a snack or in salads.
Taking raw 🍎 apples is more better some times than cooking. The right way: Boiling fruits and vegetables for long periods of time can deplete the nutrient content as the vitamins are leached out in the water. Instead, use quick cooking methods like light steaming or roasting until crisp-tender.
A:Diane McKay, PhD, a scientist in Tufts' HNRCA Antioxidant Nutrition Laboratory, answers: “Like most foods, cooking apples will tend to decrease the vitamin C content, since this nutrient is particularly susceptible to heat.
Pears have a reputation for being extraordinarily well-tolerated. One reason is that they are easy to digest and the perfect gentle food for babies as well as adults who are sensitive to acid. Pears contain only about 3g of acid per kilogram, while apples contain 4-15g.
Due to their multiple health advantages, apples are often regarded to be the "king of fruits" by many nutritionists and health professionals. It is quite beneficial to eat apples first thing in the morning empty-handed. Apple components are simple, simple to stomach, and simple to absorb.
The culprits are fructose, which is a FODMAP, and the high fiber content of apples. Fructose and fiber can both be fermented in the large intestine, and may cause gas and bloating ( 8 ). Cooked apples may be easier to digest than fresh ones.
If you tend toward gas, bloating, or constipation, a raw apple might not be your jam. For vata types who love apples but hate constipation, cooking them makes them easier to digest. If you have more pitta in your system, with excess heat and strong digestion, apples are amazing.
Similarly, in the morning we have to reignite our slumbering fire of digestion with lighter, easy-to-digest foods such as a stewed apple and eat heavier foods such as grains, meat, eggs, yogurt, and raw fruit later, when our digestion is burning at its optimal strength.
“Yes, various gut-friendly bacteria reside in the apple, and most of them in the core. As such, eating the core after removing the seeds provides ten times more healthy bacteria than eating the flesh alone,” Garima Goyal, a registered dietitian, told indianexpress.com.
Apples contain pectin which has many health benefits. When cooked, the pectin inside the skin is easily accessible to the microbiome in the colon and helps to repopulate beneficial flora and helps heal leaky gut.
You may even enjoy greater overall health, since a review of studies found that eating apples was associated with a reduced risk of heart disease, asthma and type-2 diabetes. Even though pectin is present in raw apples too, its effect is more pronounced when the apples are cooked.
You could also make applesauce, apple butter or apple jelly. You could put them in muffins, crumbles and cakes. You could layer them in sandwiches. You could roast them with sausages or toss them into kale salad.
“Yes, various gut-friendly bacteria reside in the apple, and most of them in the core. As such, eating the core after removing the seeds provides ten times more healthy bacteria than eating the flesh alone,” Garima Goyal, a registered dietitian, told indianexpress.com.
Here are some tips for getting maximum nutrition from your meals: Prep the right way: Boiling fruits and veggies for long periods of time can deplete the nutrient content as vitamins are leached into the water.
Fruit and fruit juices: apple, cherry, grape, guava, litchi, mango, melon (honeydew and watermelon), orange, papaya, pear, persimmon, pineapple, quince, star fruit. Cooked fruit generally has lower fructose content than uncooked fruit.
Boiling: Boiling apples may lead to significant quercetin loss, as the compound can leach into the cooking water. To minimize nutrient loss, consider using the cooking water in recipes or as a base for soups or sauces.
Introduction: My name is Msgr. Refugio Daniel, I am a fine, precious, encouraging, calm, glamorous, vivacious, friendly person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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