HOME HEALTH GUIDE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 August 1943, Page 6

HOME HEALTH GUIDE

THE APPLE-A-DAY HABIT.

PROVED VALUE OF PECTIN.

(By the Health Department.)

Like many other old legends, the one about the apple-a-day-keeping-the-doc-tor-away, contains the germ of good sound advice. With the advance made in food research in recent years, the medicinal virtues of the apple have been gradually elucidated. On the continent of Europe, for instance, it has been the custom for a century to treat diarrhoea in infants by giving them grated raw ripe apple. In view of the laxative tendency of the apple, this effect may be surprising, but it has been proved that this fruit has a definitely beneficial action in infections of the alimentary tract. This curative property, as far as is known at present, is due to a combination of the pectin, the acids, the sugars, and the traces of copper present in the apple. These combine to remove the toxins produced-by bacteria; in addition to which they also prevent the bacteria from multiplying. Pectin, as most housewives should know, is the substance responsible for the jellifying properties of apples, and is present in the greatest amount when the apple is hard-ripe. The Dunn's Favourite apple is a good source of pectin. In an attack of diarrhoea, therefore, try washing and slicing six or eight apples (skins’and cores may be included) barely covering with water, and cooking them for 15 minutes. When they are copl enough, squeeze the juice through a jelly bag. If the patient can drink the whole of this juice (unsweetened) inside about two hours, he may get well enough to resume' meals.

And it is not a bad idea to preserve some of the extract by pasteurisation against the time when apples are in short supply.