In my a previous post this month I introduced the idea of pumpkins being symbolic with the fall season in America.  Pumpkins are certainly associated with both Halloween and Thanksgiving, the two big fall holidays, but there are other foods associated with this season too.  Today I am going to start a two-part serious looking at another iconic fall food, the apple.  Like pumpkins, apples are ripe in many parts of the United States in fall, and usually only in fall.  So people have grown accustom to eating apples in the fall, making apple pies (and other apple desserts), and drink apple beverages like apple cider.  Often when Americans think about apples they think about fall and picking apples.

Today, to begin our look at apples I’d like to introduce you to a common English saying, an apple a day keeps the doctor away.’   In my next post we look at some activities that involve apples in the fall.  First though let’s talk about this common phrase:

“An apple a day keeps the doctor away.”

This idiom means exactly what it says, if you eat apples frequently (i.e. every day) you will have good health.  One reason most American know this phrase is because they probably heard if from their parents when they were young.  This is because parents try to get their children to eat more healthy food, when children often just want sweets.  This phrase is frequently used to encourage people to eat healthy foods.  In fact apples do have some good health benefits. They contain Vitamin C and cholesterol reducing chemicals. They also reduce tooth decay, which may be the main reason this phrase came about many years ago.  The oldest recorded use of this phrase in English is form the 1860s a time in history when tooth troubles were a big problem as they can be very painful.  So, if you want to stay healthy, you can take some good American advice: an apple a day keeps the doctor away.

Are there any sayings like this in your native language, sayings that encourage people to eat a certain food for good health?  Maybe you could translate one into English and share it with us here.