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 at bed, knock the doctor on the head.
Three each day, seven days a week, ruddy apple,
ruddy cheek.
The most surprising thing about this rhyme is that it wasn’t invented by the apple industry, or even the association of greengrocers, if there is such a thing. It evolved during the sixteenth century and has been used ever since (sometimes rather desperately) as part of parental propaganda to get children to eat their greens. But what’s interesting is the deep distrust of doctors and medical science it shows. Its advice is that doctors are to be avoided at all costs; they are only looking to make money out of you. Folk medicine (what we’d now call herbalism) was at odds with official medicine and often prescribed remedies that mirrored the result you’d be looking for. If you want a rosy, ruddy face then eat an apple; a red one, that is – green cheeks might necessitate a visit from the doctor after all.