There Is No Such Thing As An Apple Core
At the left: A few bites in. Middle: Almost done. Right: I don’t eat stems.
The next time someone eats an apple in front of you and throws out the core, I want you to point and say, “You are wasted.” No, not because the person is drunkenly eating fruit — I want you to point at the core and say it. Because today Consumerist has seen the light, the light that says there’s no such thing as an apple core and we are all wasting food.
We had no idea this was a thing until today, although FoodBeast showed back in May how to eat an apple in its entirety. We missed that foray into food mythbusting, but not today’s Atlantic piece by James Hamblin wherein he blew our minds. Or rather, Boss Meg said “HOW IS THIS A THING?!?” and I replied “I don’t know!!! TO THE FRUIT BIN!”
See, all you have to do is eat the apple from either the top or the bottom, instead of around the sides.
“Boo hoo, I hate apple seeds,” you’re surely crying because life is just so hard. Spit them out and keep going (especially because they contain a substance called amygdalin, which can release a tiny amount of hydrogen cyanide when digested. Takes a lot of seeds, but still).
Do it the way you’re used to and the average person is wasting 30% of the fruit, or about $13.2 billion annually according to Hamblin’s math.
I’d already eaten an apple this morning, but since we here at Consumerist only believe what we can eat, I took it upon myself to bust this myth with my own mouth, just for you.
And while I don’t have a fancy recording studio to make movies, I do have a camera and captured proof of my efforts.
Guess what? It’s true. Apple cores are not a thing. That thin crunchy-ish layer you usually gnaw up against? Can’t taste it or even detect it when chomping vertically. I did choose to not eat the stem at the end because I figured that makes for a better picture than just an empty table, but you can remove yours before you start if you want to feel you’ve eaten everything there is to eat.
So there you have it. Go on and eat your apple a day and maybe send me some because now I’m all out.
How to Eat An Apple Like a Boss [FoodBeast]
Apple Cores Are a Myth [The Atlantic]
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