According to a new study, it's not sure that an apple a day would keep the doctor away. The study says those who consume apples daily have to visit a doctor as many times as those who eat fewer or no apples.

The results of the study do not indicate that consuming apples is not a good choice. It simply means that one can't depend on just one kind of food in order to maintain health and avoid sickness.

According to approximately one-third of the adults studied, they didn't visit doctor more than once in the previous year and others said that they visited at least twice. It was found in a preliminary analysis that apple eaters had somewhat fewer visits than those who avoided apples i. e. consumed less than one daily or no apples.

But when race, weight, education, health insurance and other factors were taken into consideration by researchers, the difference between apple eaters and apple avoiders remained no more.

The study has been published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine. The researchers analyzed the data on approximately 8,400 US adults, who participated in government health surveys in 2007-08 and 2009-10.

It was found in the survey that about 9% of adults studied consumed the equivalent of at least one small apple daily.

According to Wendy Brannen, director of public relations for the U. S. Apple Association, "While we appreciate the University of Michigan took the time to put the 'apple a day' adage to the test, it's foolish to even imply you shouldn't enjoy a daily apple for your health when centuries of advice and stacks of current research would imply otherwise".

According to Dr. Steven Zeisel, director of the University of North Carolina Nutrition Research Institute, one apple is not sufficient for maintaining good health; a healthy food pattern is also needed to be followed.