16 Apple (The Fruit) Facts You Probably Didn’t Know

They’re sweet, crunchy, and the perfect vehicle for getting peanut butter, chocolate, and cheese into your mouth. What’s not to love about apples?While you probably know the fruit’s myriad health benefits, odds are you aren’t aware of these cool (and very random) apple facts.

1. Apples are actually a part of the rose, or Rosaceae family of plants. This includes many fruit plants such as pears, almonds, apricots, cherries, plums, raspberries, peaches and more.

2. Despite the fact that only the crab apple is native to North America, there are over 2,500 hundred different different types of apples grown in North America today.

3. Johnny Appleseed (real name John Chapman) was yes, a real person, and yes, he planted apple trees all over parts of the United States, but he wasn’t poor, and he wasn’t being nice. Back then, land could be claimed if you created a permanent homestead, and one of the ways to do that was to plant 50 trees to start an orchard. Chapman planted trees, and then later would sell “his” land to people.

4. Though apples are naturally high in fruit sugar (like, really high), they also contain so much fiber that it doesn’t really cause a blood sugar spike, and they actually have a very low glycemic index. This is why applesauce is softened and used as an alternative to refined sugar in some sugar free recipes. Apples are actually considerably better for you blood-sugar wise than many other fruits, such as bananas.