Are the health benefits associated with apple consumption simply due to other healthy behaviors among apple-eaters? Regular apple intake is associated with all sorts of good things, like living longer—particularly a lower risk of dying from cancer. Here’s the survival curve of elderly women who don’t eat an apple a day. Ten years out, nearly a quarter had died, and 15 years out, nearly half were gone. But, those who average like a half an apple a day don’t drop off as fast, and those eating an apple a day—more than three and a half ounces of apples a day—like a cup of apple slices—stayed around even longer. Yeah, but maybe people who eat apples every day just happen to practice other healthy behaviors, like exercising more, or not smoking, and that’s really why they’re living longer. Well, they controlled for most of that—obesity, smoking status, poverty, diseases, exercise—so as to compare apples to apples (so to speak!)….