Obviously eating an apple a day provides your body with all-natural goodness, vitamins, and a slew of healthy ingredients. ONLY eating an apple day, you may suffer from malnutrition, though, so keep that in mind.
But where does this phrase come from? Digging deep turned up this:
"An apple a day keeps the doctor away. Eating fruit regularly keeps one healthy. First found as a Welsh folk proverb (1866)" 'Eat an apple on going to bed,/ And you'll keep the doctor from earning his bread.' First attested in the United States in 1913..."
- "Random House Dictionary of Popular Proverbs and Sayings" by Gregory Y. Titelman (1996)
Did you know, too, that the rhyme has a few more stanzas?
An apple a day keeps the doctor away
Apple in the morning - Doctor's warning
Roast apple at night - starves the doctor outright
Eat an apple going to bed - knock the doctor on the head
Three each day, seven days a week - ruddy apple, ruddy cheek
But will an apple a day really stave off trips to the medical plazas?
When you consider the nutrients found in an apple versus those found in, say, a banana, you're better off peeling that yellow skin to enjoy four times the protein, twice the carbohydrate, three times the phosphorus, five times the vitamin A and iron, and twice the other vitamins and minerals. Plus, think of all that potassium!