Sir, – Saturday’s Magazine (June 22nd) included a piece where Manchán Magan made the environmental case for a switch from eating oranges to eating Irish grown apples. All was fine until he made a statement that “apples have almost the same” amount of vitamin C as oranges and added “as well as calcium, iron, potassium, and vitamin E”.
Could he let readers know what magical varieties of apple he refers to? The best figures I can see for the nutritional value of apples shows vitamin C of 9mg compared to 70mg for oranges; calcium 9.5mg to 52mg for oranges; iron is but a trace value in each; potassium of 158mg can be found in an apple and 237mg in an orange.
He seems to be correct with regard to vitamin E, as oranges do not contain any, while an apple has a minute 0.661iu of the RDA of 22mg.
We were always warned to avoid comparing apples and oranges, but Mr Magan has taken this adage to a new level. – Yours, etc,
:fill(white):background_color(white)/static.themebuilder.aws.arc.pub/irishtimes/1647534191476.png)
PAT MULLEN,
Dundalk,
Co Louth.