But, an alarming new study addressing an old wives tale hasn't come up apples for apples.

"Evidence does not support that an apple a day keeps the doctor away," say the researchers from the University of Michigan.

"People who eat an apple a day are a little more likely to keep the doctor away, but once we adjusted for all the other differences – as you can imagine, apple eaters are very different from non-apple eaters – the effect disappeared," lead author Matthew Davis told The Atlantic.

To come to this conclusion, Davis and his team analysed the dietary data of more than 8700 adults.

Only 9 per cent of those studied ate their daily apple and these people were less likely to smoke, less likely to be from an ethnic minority group and tended to be more educated than irregular apple-eaters.

They were less likely to have visited the doctor in the previous year, but after adjusting for the other differences between the two groups, there was no statistical significance.

There was one marked benefit for the apple-eaters, the study found; they were less likely to have needed prescription medication in the past year.

An apple a day to keep the chemist away, might therefore be the better phrase to adopt.

Doctors and chemists aside, apples, filled with fibre and vitamin C are still worthy of being a daily fruit.

According to Caroline Taggart, author of An Apple a Day: Old-Fashioned Proverbs and Why They Still Work, Ancient Romans and Anglo-Saxons, she said, considered apples to have healthful properties. In traditional Ayurvedic medicine, dating back about 1500 years in southern Asia, apples are also believed to be balancing and good for constipation.

The actual phrase itself however is relatively new.

"It sounds as if it should be really old, but in fact the first recorded use is in the 1860s, when it is said to be an old saying from Pembrokeshire in Wales," said Taggart.

Old or new, they can also help your heart, so put the daily chips back down, and grab an apple instead.