Pears Versus Apples

There are as many as 7,500 apples grown worldwide, and about 3,000 varieties of pears found around the globe. Nutritional content can vary depending on variety, as well as whether you're eating canned, fresh, dried or frozen apples or pears. As good sources of fiber, vitamin C, and various antioxidants, both apples and pears are great to incorporate in a meal or snack.


Apples and pears are both rather low calorie foods considering the amount of nutrition they provide. One large apple contains approximately 116 calories, while a large pear contains 131 calories. These calories are essential for energy, and fruits like apples and pears provide a greater sense of fullness than a sugary snack because they also contain fiber.

Both apples and pears are good sources of fiber. Women need about 25 grams of fiber per day, while men need 38 grams per day. Both fruits contribute significantly to this total, with a large apple containing about 5.4 grams of fiber, while a pear has about 7.1 grams. In addition to keeping you fuller longer, fiber lowers cholesterol and blood sugar and prevents constipation.

An antioxidant, vitamin C plays an important role in growth and repair of tissue such as skin, ligaments, tendons and blood vessels. Apples and pears provide comparable amounts of vitamin C. Both provide about 10 milligrams of the essential nutrient. Women age 19 and older should get 75 milligrams of vitamin C per day, while the recommendation for men is 90 milligrams per day.


While looking at a nutrition facts panel will tell you how healthful apples and pears are, further investigation into some nutrients that aren't listed on a typical nutrition facts panel only reinforces this notion.

For instance, pears are loaded with phytonutrients, particularly flavonoids, which are natural chemical compounds that have been found to have disease-fighting properties. Apples also contain a healthy dose of polyphenols, another type of phytonutrient. In both fruits, eating the skin of the fruit is important, as this is where the bulk of the phytonutrients are found.

Not Wanting to Eat Healthy

School officials in Carmel Clay, Ind., said they lost $300,000 last school year because students are rejecting the healthy menu changes brought on by First Lady Michelle Obama’s federal lunch regulations.

“I’ve had a lot of complaints, especially with the little guys,” Linda Wireman, a food service director for North White School Corp., told JCOnline. “They get a three-quarters cup of vegetables, but if it’s something they don’t like, it goes down the garbage disposal. So there are a lot of complaints they’re going home hungry.”

 

Amy Anderson, the food service director for the school district, said the rules made her feel less like an educator and more like a “food cop.” The changes have even made her consider retiring early.

Lori Shofroth, Tippecanoe School Corp.’s food service director, said many students are throwing food away, putting a dent in the district’s budget.

“They’re teaching our kids with this meal pattern that it’s OK to throw away,” she told JCOnline. “We did a waste study on three different schools, and there was a huge amount of waste. That was just with produce, fruit or vegetables or milk.”

Other students don’t eat the lunches at all, resulting in a $300,000 loss for the district.

“I’ve got kids who can stop at Panera and pick up a sandwich that meets none of these criteria. I’m not maybe your typical school district, and they’re assuming that every student doesn’t have access to food, and that’s incorrect in this community,” Amy Anderson told the paper. “Our kids can just wait and just hop in their BMWs and go to McDonald’s, which they’re rebuilding, making it bigger.”

As reported by the Harvard School of Public Health  Childhood obesity has been called “one of the most serious public health challenges of the 21st century,” and with good reason.

Obesity can harm nearly every system in a child’s body—heart and lungs, muscles and bones, kidneys and digestive tract, as well as the hormones that control blood sugar and puberty—and can also take a heavy social and emotional toll. (2) What’s worse, youth who are overweight or obese have substantially higher odds of remaining overweight or obese into adulthood, (3) increasing their risk of disease and disability later in life.