Apple compote: useful properties and contraindications

Apple compote is familiar to everyone since childhood. In some families it is made from fresh fruit, others make it from dried fruits, some make home canned. Most often it is prepared in summer when fresh apples are in abundance. Moreover, both fallen and slightly unripe fruits are suitable for making this drink. In order to cook the compote does not require culinary skills and a lot of time.

Composition and Calories

The caloric value of the product and its saturation with useful vitamins and elements depends on what fruit was used for cooking. The lowest nutritional value of compote, cooked from fresh apples without sugar - only 8 kcal per 100 grams. If it is sweetened, the caloric value will reach 85 kcal, which is also low. A drink made from dried fruit without sweeteners reaches 31.6 kcal, while a canned one reaches 93 kcal.

Minimal heat treatment in the preparation of the compote allows you to save a maximum of vitamins, micro-and macronutrients contained in the fresh apples.

These vitamins are:

1. C (ascorbic acid). Serves to boost the immune system and improve human well-being.
2. A (retinol). Refers to natural antioxidants. Serves as a barrier to entry into the body of all kinds of infections.
3. B1 (thiamine). Promotes brain function, concentration, improves memory. Slows down the aging process.
4. B2 (riboflavin). It is often called a beauty vitamin, as it has a beneficial effect on human skin, nails, and hair. Regulates the function of the thyroid gland.
5. B5 (pantothenic acid). Stimulates the production of adrenal hormones. Strengthens the body's immune system, promotes the absorption of other vitamins.
6. B6 (pyridoxine). Prevents nervous and skin disorders and helps lower blood sugar.
7. B9 (folic acid). Participates in the creation of new cells and keeps them healthy. Stabilizes the psycho-emotional state during hormonal changes in the body.
8. PP (nicotinic acid). Regulates the level of "bad" cholesterol. Strengthens the cardiovascular system and optimizes metabolic processes in the body.
9. E (tocopherol). It is a powerful antioxidant that protects tissue from free radicals. Helps to restore cell membranes, accelerates tissue regeneration.

Macronutrients:

1. Potassium. Helps sodium to normalize water balance in the human body, promotes normal heart muscle contraction. Improves the supply of oxygen to the brain.
2. Magnesium. Helps convert sugar into energy, promotes normal functioning of the kidneys, gallbladder, cardiovascular and endocrine systems. Participates in the excretion of toxins.
3. Phosphorus. Helps maintain healthy teeth, promotes bone growth. Improves metabolism, coordinates acid-alkaline balance.
4. Sulfur. Participates in the synthesis of hemoglobin, collagen, insulin. Protects the protoplasm from harmful bacteria.
5. Sodium. Normalizes the water-alkaline balance, the gastrointestinal tract. Promotes normal functioning of the nervous and muscular system.

Trace elements:

1. Iron. Plays an essential role in the formation of hemoglobin. Helps in the metabolism of B vitamins.
2. Copper. Participates in collagen formation and endorphin synthesis. Helps iron convert into hemoglobin.
3. Boron. Plays a crucial role in metabolism. Prevents the development of bone disease.

It should be remembered that, depending on the variety of apples, can change both the caloric value and the amount of vitamins and micro- and macroelements in the compote.

What is the usefulness of fresh apple compote

Apple compote is not only able to quench thirst, but also improves health, beneficially affecting the human body.

1. Made from those kinds of fruits that can be stored all winter, it combats seasonal vitamin deficiency, helps to protect against colds and viral diseases, increases immunity.
2. With regular use, the drink cleanses the liver ducts from stagnant bile, which serves to improve its performance.
3. Moderate diuretic properties of the compote prevents the formation of kidney stones, while not causing a heavy burden on the genitourinary system.
4. It is enough to drink one glass of the drink per day to keep your cholesterol levels in check. This helps reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease.
5. For people in old age, apple compote helps to slow down the aging of the brain, to prevent the development of dementia, diseases of the visual organs.

For women

Doctors believe that apple compote from fresh fruit can save women from many problems, if you drink it regularly.

1. During menstruation, it can reduce pain, quickly recover from profuse blood loss, normalize the psycho-emotional state.
2. Vitamins and minerals contained in the drink will help maintain youthful skin and strengthen the hair and nails.
3. The daily use of the drink reduces the risk of breast and uterine cancer.

For men

1. No less useful compote, boiled from fresh apples, and for men. He helps to quickly recover from strenuous mental labor, increases physical endurance. Reduces the risk of prostate cancer, supports potency. Helps restore male hormone levels.
2. With constant work on the computer, the drink helps relieve eye strain, helps maintain visual acuity.
3. Those who are actively engaged in sports, the compote will help strengthen the bone skeleton, muscles.

For children

Not without reason in children's institutions apple compote is necessarily included in the menu. Its benefits for the growing body can hardly be overestimated. He will help:

• Protect against anemia.
• Strengthen the immune system.
• Normalize the bioflora of the intestine.
• Make the baby sleep calm, strengthen the nervous system.

Also in this drink contains vitamins necessary for normal growth and development.

For pregnant women

The full development of the future child requires that a woman's body contains the necessary amount of vitamins, macro-and micronutrients. They need to be constantly replenished. And apple compote from fresh fruit can become in this period of life an indispensable source of necessary substances.

1. In addition, if there are signs of toxicity, it will help relieve the discomfort, eliminate nausea and vomiting. This drink is especially recommended by doctors in the first trimester.
2. Many pregnant women suffer from anemia. Apple compote can help in this case as well. Iron in it contributes to the production of hemoglobin.
3. To avoid allergies, you should choose for the preparation of the drink green varieties. Also in them to a greater extent there are substances that help keep teeth healthy, strengthen the hair and nails.

You should not replace water with a fruit drink. In large quantities it can cause swelling, which is undesirable during pregnancy.

When breastfeeding

Include compote from fresh apples in the menu of a nursing mother can, when the baby is three to four weeks old. It is best to choose a drink of green fruit, to avoid allergies. Introduce it to the diet in small portions, starting with 1/3 cup per day, monitoring the reaction of the child. In the absence of any problems, the dose can be increased to three cups. This amount is enough to get the necessary nutrients.

Compote helps to normalize the intestines, removes toxins, stabilizes the emotional background in the postpartum period.

What is healthier: from fresh or dried apples?

In summer and early autumn, when ripe apples, it is better to cook compote from fresh fruit. Moreover, you can use fallen and slightly unripe fruit for it. Such a drink is great to quench thirst on a hot day and keep almost all the useful substances contained in the fresh apple.

In winter, when choosing between dried fruit and fresh bought fruits, it is better to choose dried fruits. Especially if they are prepared by yourself. When properly dried, up to 90% of water evaporates from apples, and vitamins and trace elements are preserved in a concentrated form. But when boiled, according to phytotherapists, most of them escapes. Therefore, it is better to reduce the temperature treatment to a minimum.

How to cook dried apples yourself
The easiest way to dry apples is in an electric dryer. But if you don't have one, you can use an oven. To do this, the fruit is washed, the core is removed, cut into circles or slices and dipped in a salt solution or citric acid to avoid oxidation. Then they are dried on a paper towel. Lay out baking paper on a baking tray and arrange the apple slices so that they do not touch each other. At first the temperature in the oven should be 85 ° C. After 25 minutes it is reduced to 70 degrees and continue drying for 5 hours. Slices turn over, reduce the oven temperature to 50 ° C and leave for another 4 hours. It is best to store such a product in canvas bags.

To preserve maximum vitamins, it is best to dry apples in the sun. To do this, the slices are strung on threads and hung, covered with gauze. The process takes 10-15 days. The slices should be elastic and smell nice. You can also spread them on a flat surface in a thin layer. At the same time, you must not forget to turn it.

Is it possible to drink compote when losing weight?

Trying to lose weight, it is important not to harm your health. Therefore, before you include apple compote in your diet, you need to consider all the contraindications that this drink has.

1. For the greatest effectiveness, you should not add sugar when cooking. If dried fruits are used, it is better to take homemade.
2. Drink from apples, in addition to being low-calorie, will help to eliminate excess water from the body. Properly cooked, it gives the body the necessary nutrients, normalizes digestion, turns blood sugar into energy.

You can add other fruits to the compote, which will increase the effectiveness of the apple drink:

1. Prunes and apricots will help cleanse the bowels.
2. Citrus fruits will accelerate the weight loss process, as they help to burn fat.
3. Mint and lemon balm reduce appetite and have a calming effect.
4. Cinnamon will reduce cravings for sweets.

Nutritionists recommend drinking apple compote in the first half of the day, including between meals. But you should limit its quantity to one liter.

Diabetes mellitus and apple compote: benefit or harm

To refuse with diabetes from a useful and tasty drink is not worth it, only to prepare it without sugar and sugar substitutes. Of the variety of different varieties, it is better to give preference to green sweet and sour: Simirenko Renette, Granny Smith, Golden Rangers. They have less carbohydrate content. Sweet apples should not be used, especially in dried form, as they have a high concentration of fructose. It is not recommended to add grapes, figs, raisins and dates to such a compote. They have a high glycemic index.

Despite the benefits, still do not abuse the drink.

Harm and contraindications

With some diseases, apple compote can bring more harm to the human body than good. The main contraindication is stomach and intestinal diseases.

1. In this fruit, even dried, there are many acids. Therefore, with increased acidity of the stomach, gastritis, heartburn, pancreatitis, this homemade drink can deliver unpleasant feelings. This is especially true for green apples.
2. The hydrocyanic acid contained in the pips is harmful to people. When preparing the fruit for cooking, you must be sure to remove the core. But if by chance a few seeds got into the compote, nothing terrible will happen.
3. Apple compote is not recommended for people who suffer from flatulence.
4. Individual intolerance also serves as a reason to refuse the drink.

How to cook delicious apple compote: recipes

Despite the simplicity of preparation, housewives use different tricks to make an ordinary apple compote tastier.

You can cook it both in a multicooker and in a pot. Only you need to choose utensils that do not interact with fruit acids. You can take enamel, teflon or stainless steel.

You should not peel the fruit before cooking. It is in it, compared to the pulp, contains most of the vitamins micro and macronutrients. The rind of the fruit contains rutin, quercitin, flavonoids, antioxidants, phytochemicals, vitamin C, insoluble fiber, pectin, ursolic acid, triterpinoids.

From fresh.

A kilogram of apples should be washed under running water, dried with a paper towel, remove the stalks. Three liters of water put on the fire. While it boils, you need to prepare the fruit. You can cut out the core with a special device or by cutting the apple into slices. You can add a little lemon juice to the boiling water, then the taste of the drink will be more pronounced, and the apples will not darken while boiling.

Sliced slices are dropped into boiling water, turn down the heat and bring the drink to perfection. With soft varieties of apples cook compote for 5-10 minutes, with hard - about 20 minutes. Leave to stand for about 5 hours. Sugar can be added to taste in the finished drink. The classic recipe for 3 liters of compote put a cup and a half sugar.

From dried

Without heat treatment
From home-dried apples, you can prepare a so-called cold compote. Dried fruit is well washed under cold running water. After that, they fill about one-third of the volume of the container. You can immediately in a jug. Apples are poured with filtered water. Boiled for this purpose will not work. After 5-6 hours, the infusion will get a light brown color. This indicates that it is ready. Thus, it turns out to preserve all the useful substances.

Classic
Ingredients: dried apples - 300 grams, granulated sugar - 250 grams, water 2 liters.

The fruit is sorted, rinsed in running water and soaked for 40-60 minutes. A pot of water is placed on the stove and brought to a boil. Sugar is poured and stirred until completely dissolved. Soaked apples are dipped into the resulting boiling syrup, close the lid and simmer for 30 minutes over low heat. Before removing from the stove, you can add a little lemon juice. Ready drink should infuse half an hour or an hour.

With unripe apples

Unripe apples have a lot of tannins, which destroy the liver, inhibit the activity of enzymes, digestion of proteins. When cooked, they are destroyed. Therefore, compote from such fruits can be boiled, but it will have a sour taste. Therefore, the amount of sugar will have to be doubled. You can also use other fruits or berries, which had time to ripen in the garden, when preparing the drink.

For 500 grams of apples take 2 liters of water. The fruit is washed and cut into thin slices. The finer they are, the richer in flavor the drink will be. Boil water and dissolve in it six tablespoons of sugar. The apples are poured into the water and simmered under a lid for 15-20 minutes. After that, taste and add sugar, so that the compote has a pleasant sour taste. Sustain beverage should stand for several hours.

Apples and pears

For every day
For 3 liters of water take 500 grams of pears, 500 grams of fresh apples and 200 grams of sugar. The fruits are washed, cut into long slices, removing the core. Put sugar, fruit and reduce heat to minimum. Beverage boiled by covering the pot with a lid 10-15 minutes. After the compote has cooled, it is poured into a jug and served.

For the winter
Ingredients: 500 grams of apples, 200 grams of pears, 350 grams of granulated sugar, 2.2 liters of bottled water.

Recipe: Fruits are washed, cut into 4 parts, remove the core. Jars and lids are sterilized. Each jar is half filled with fruit, pour boiling water, cover and leave for 20 minutes. Then drain the water into a saucepan, add granulated sugar and boil the syrup. Fruits again pour the syrup and screw on the lids. Jars are turned upside down and covered to cool slowly. After a day they can be put in a cool place.

Apples and black chokeberry

For this compote, it is better to take apples with a denser flesh and small. This way they will retain their shape better.

Ingredients: 12 small apples, 5 tbsp. berries of black chokeberry, 4.5 cups of granulated sugar, 4.5 liters of water.

Recipe: black chokeberry must be carefully parsed. Rinse the apples and berries and put them into two sterilized jars. Bring water to a boil, add granulated sugar to it and pour into glass containers. Jars to roll up, invert and cover. After cooling, you can store at room temperature.

This amount of granulated sugar makes the compote concentrated. In order not to dilute it in winter with water, you can halve the amount of granulated sugar.

From apples and dried fruit

One of the most common recipes for compote is a drink made from fresh apples, raisins and apricots. For 2 liters of bottled water take 3 large apples, 100 grams of apricots, 100 grams of raisins, 6 tablespoons of granulated sugar.

While the water is boiling, the raisins and apricots are washed and steeped in boiling water. The apples are washed, cut into thin slices, removing the core. Put all the fruits in boiling water, close the pan with a lid and cook over medium heat for about 20 minutes. Apples should become soft. Sugar is added at the very end of cooking. Remove the pot from the stove and leave to cool. During this time, the drink will infuse and become fragrant.

Instead of fresh apples, you can use dried apples.

Application of apple compote in folk medicine

The apple drink cannot be considered as an independent remedy capable of curing the disease. Rather, the compote serves as a complementary therapy. Before using it, you should consult a doctor for contraindications. Otherwise, there will be more harm than good.

1. With iron deficiency anemia, it is recommended to drink the compote every morning for a month.
2. Slices of apples from the drink are kneaded, obtaining a kind of puree, which contains a lot of rough fiber. Several teaspoons a day eaten on an empty stomach of this product prevent the development of dysbacteriosis, will cause the growth of useful microflora in the intestines. In addition, it will accelerate the removal of toxic substances from the body.
3. Unpleasant breath can be eliminated by drinking the compote as a dessert after eating.
4. Get rid of cough with a cold will help drink from fresh apples and apple leaves. It is taken hot.
5. In hypertension compote is prepared from the apple peel. For one liter of water take 4 tablespoons of fruit peels. They are boiled for 10 minutes, cooled and drunk in a few sips during the day for a month.
6. When kidney stones or gallbladder stones, it is recommended to drink at least one glass of compote brewed according to the classic recipe.
7. After the compote is drunk, the remaining boiled apples can be used in the form of compresses for gout.