Start Me Up

By Chris Mittelstaedt
January 4, 2010
Reading Time: 2 mins.

At dinner one night, I announced a grand holiday idea: “I think we should road trip this year when we go visit my folks,” I said enthusiastically. My wife and kids just stared. “Come on! No airports. No lines. No hassles.” Crickets. The sound of a tree felled in a forest by the motion of one hand clapping. “Guys. Seriously. It’s gonna be fun.”

Seven hundred twenty miles and five vacation days behind us, we start from the Arizona desert heading west back to California. “Dad,” my daughter says as she looks at the back of my head with her new super-spy-binoculars. “I have evidence that you have gray hair.” My other daughter starts singing: “Diiiidddd. . . You get the memo that my sister’s a crazy kid? Oh, yes, she is! She’s crazy, and here’s the memo to prove it!” She’s keeping a pretty good tune as she scribbles on a pad of paper and rips off the memo and gives it to her siblings. “Plus she smells like garlic!” My other daughter yells: “Mom!” Then the shoving starts. I’m starting to feel kind of tired after the long drive (I can’t imagine why), and since I’m on a no coffee diet, I turn to my tried and true choice to start me up — an apple.

I’ve read online once or twice that apples have more caffeine than coffee. Let’s set the record straight: Apples don’t contain caffeine. What the writer was most likely trying to say is that the energy you get from eating an apple seems to be greater than the energy derived from drinking a cup of coffee. My New Orleans–based chicory-coffee-drinking grandmother may have disagreed, but my body seems to react like it’s true. For me, apples give me steady and consistent energy that wakes me up and makes me more alert than coffee does. While coffee can have this effect too, I find that after the first 30 minutes to an hour or so, my heart starts racing—then I crash. An apple, on the other hand, gives me sustained and smooth energy that doesn’t crash my system later. Skeptical? Try it for yourself. Substitute that after-lunch cup of coffee with an apple, and see how you feel.

Remember, if you want to identify that piece of fruit in your hand from your box, visit our Mix Pages! Just click on your region, then find your mix type. (If you don’t know your mix type, it’s included on the label affixed to the side of the fruit box.) Or give us a call at 1-877-FRUIT-ME (877-378-4863), and we’ll help get you the info.