The old saying, “an apple a day to keep the doctor away” was a positive aphorism promoting good health, but would eating “a chicken a day keep the doctor away”? Apples and chicken both have their nutrition benefits, but if you really chose one nutritional food to eat every single day, what could you eat and what really is most beneficial for your health?

According to this NCBI study, the original saying was actually this

Eat an apple on going to bed and you’ll keep the doctor from earning his bread.

NCBI

The apple was eaten later in the day or for dinner time. So ask yourself, which food could and should you really eat every night for dinner? Apples or chicken? We compare apples to chicken because in our family, we really could eat chicken every night because there’s so many different ways to prepare it compared to apples. Since we do eat a lot of chicken and not as many apples for dinner, wouldn’t it be comforting to know if chicken was the rightful owner of that aphorism?

If you all are more chicken lovers than apple lovers and curious which one has more nutritional benefits, here are some interesting and lesser known benefits we discovered that supports chicken for the win!

Chicken Health Benefits

Chicken wins #1 sleep-inducing food

The American Sleep Association has listed poultry (chicken and turkey) as the #1 sleep-inducing food to help American’s fight insomnia and sleep better at night. tryptophan is an amino acid triggering your bodies natural sleep hormones and is highest in poultry.

Protein is essential to every process in the body

Your body does not store protein, yet it is vital to our health. This is why a good amount needs ingested daily. Chicken contains 8g of protein per 1 oz giving us one of the most bangs for our buck to achieve our daily protein goals averaging around 50g for the general adult population. The protein chicken contains also consists of all nine essential amino acids that many foods do not contain even if they are a source of protein.

Chicken promotes heart health

The American Heart Association has many yummy chicken recipes because chicken (boneless, skinless breast) contains heart healthy nutrients such as b6, niacin, omega 3’s and less saturated fat than red meat. These nutrients help lower cholesterol and promote cardiovascular circulation. There are people that may have inherited heart risks no matter what they eat, but it’s always best to choose the most heart healthy foods.

Chicken soup wins go to natural remedy when we get sick

Turns out chicken soup contains some awesome cold fighting ingredients including the chicken! The carnosine in chicken can actually minimize inflammation in the airway passages such as the nose and throat when you are sick. Of course the other ingredients have their benefits too during sickness. The onions and broth take a leading role. Turns out, onions and broth also wins best soup to reduce unwanted alcohol effects when drinking. Gotta love soup!

Chicken VS Apple nutrition

It’s no question chicken is clearly different than apples, but they actually share a few nutrition benefits and also have their own. Apples don’t have sleep-inducing properties or the protein punch chicken offers. Apples do share heart health benefits and immune system support, just in a different way than chicken does.

Apple Health Benefits

  • High vitamin C and antioxidants for immune system support.
  • Low glycemic index inducing a slow and lower rise in glucose instead of a fast high rise of blood sugar levels in diabetics.
  • High soluble fiber to support gut health.
  • Contains plant flavanol called Quercetin for anti-inflammatory, antiviral, anticancer, and antidepressant effects.

Summary

Comparing chicken to apples you can see both contain their own special nutritious properties and both should still be consumed regularly for a balanced diet. We need the proteins and fruits in our diet.

So which would you choose to eat daily if you had to choose?

After our research, apples in the morning would be more beneficial to boost our energy with fructose after a good nights sleep. Chicken seems more beneficial for dinner. However, there are a variety of fruits to choose from that contain many different health benefits and the same as apples and there are only a few foods that contain all 9 amino acid proteins chicken contains.

Maybe a new saying could be “well balanced meals a day to keep the doctor away”.

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