Q) Why do the readings indicate to avoid eating raw apples?  

A) For most bodies, raw apples are not easy to assimilate.  However, Edgar Cayce did recommend for certain individuals to consume them raw for cleansing (detoxifying) the system (see also Edgar Cayce’s “Apple Diet”). The pectin in the apple acts like a broom, scrubbing built-up mucus, embedded matter, etc., from the folds of the intestines.

For other individuals, Cayce instructed apples were to be eaten but only if they were cooked (roasted in their skins or baked). When cooked, they act as a tonic. Whether eaten raw or cooked, it was generally suggested that apples were not to be combined with other foods. They are enriched with iron (for anemia) and silicon. 

Here are some examples directly from the readings: 

As to apples—as we have indicated oft—these are not best for most people, except under conditions where they are advisable to be taken alone as a diet for the eliminations, or where certain characters of apples or their products are taken. Hence for this body, these we would leave off. 

-- Edgar Cayce reading 1206-8, given for a 13-year-old female

Eat apples. There are properties that are not acid themselves but are turned to acids when taken into the mouth, and properties that are acids that are not acids when taken into the mouth. Certain apples are acid. Some are not. This body should take apples that have been ripened on the tree. 

-- Edgar Cayce reading 483-1, given for an adult male 

Q) What should the diet be?

A) As just indicated, keep a well-balanced diet. This will depend upon the ability of the body to assimilate see? And whenever there is a great anxiety or stress, do not eat especially apples raw nor fruits of that nature which are acid-producing but rather use the easily assimilated foods.

-- Edgar Cayce reading 1724-1, given for a 40-year-old male

For more than 20 individuals, the Cayce health readings recommended the “Apple Diet” as a three-day cleansing. The Apple Diet was a modified fast where one eats nothing but apples for three days and drinks only black coffee and water. One reading advocated eating at least five or six apples a day. (See Edgar Cayce’s “Apple Diet.”) 

For more information on Cayce’s diet recommendations, you may wish to review EdgarCayce.org/diet. 

How to Ask Edgar 

Though Edgar Cayce died in 1945, he left us a legacy of 14,306 readings covering an astonishing 10,000 topics in about 24 million words! Send your question through our Ask Edgar Submission Form, and a staff person or volunteer will mine the readings database for an answer. Though we can't promise that all questions will be answered, you can check our Ask Edgar blog category for a response to yours or similar questions.