Does an Apple a Day Really Make You Healthier?

You’ve probably heard the saying, “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.” 

According to my research of several sites on the net, the oldest record of this saying I could find is from a nursery rhyme from the 1500s.  "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."

My dad has encouraged me to eat apples for as long as I can remember.  My mom says she discovered fuji apples and ate at least one every day during most of her pregnancy.  So, I like apples.  I keep learning just how beneficial these fruits are.

When my parents and I travel by car, we usually listen to books on tape. Nowadays they are easy to come by, you can often check them out from the local library.  We were listening to one I recommend THE ART OF EXCEPTIONAL LIVING by Jim Rohn.  Jim is a really wise man, and a rich one, too.  

After drilling a well with his 88-year-old father, Jim watched the man eat his midnight snack of an apple, a few graham crackers, and a glass of grapefruit juice.  He thought to himself, no wonder the man's so healthy.  His father had great health practices.  

Jim Rohn's mother had taught him the same health practices and that's why Jim Rohn had never been sick.  Jim taught his daughters the same practices, and they too were healthy.  After observing his own health practices compared to other people's, he realized why the saying goes "An apple a day" not a hershey bar a day!  

As Jim says, “A few good disciplines, practiced every day, produce success in life.” That’s true in health matters, money matters, attitude matters, and in the end is what matters!

I practice a concentration exercise, 10 repetitions of a kung fu form, and study math (algebra) and language (Latin and English), and read every day.  Each day, I will do at least one of the following: study my financial course material, do something to further this site, make movies, attend a college class on dvd, or work in the garden or orchard.

Do you have a good discipline that you practice every day?  I'd like to hear from you.