You’ve probably had your fair share of oranges if you like citrus foods.
The sweet orange, Citrus sinensis, is the type that most people like fresh or in juice form.
Many places around the world, like the United States, Mexico, and Spain, grow sweet orange trees. China grew the first ones thousands of years ago.
Vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and other plant substances that protect cells are all in large amounts in oranges. Studies have shown that eating oranges may be good for your health in more than one way.
This article covers everything about oranges, including their health and nutrition.
Nutrition
Here’s a list of the nutrients in one orange (140 grams):
- Calories: 66
- Water: 86% by weight
- Protein: 1.3 grams
- Carbs: 14.8 grams
- Sugar: 12 grams
- Fiber: 2.8 grams
- Fat: 0.2 grams
- Vitamin C: 92% of the Daily Value (DV)
- Folate: 9% of the DV
- Calcium: 5% of the DV
- Potassium: 5% of the DV
Like most fruits, oranges primarily consist of water and carbohydrates. They don’t have much protein or fat, nor do they have many calories.
Oranges have a lot of fiber. One orange contains about 10% of the DV, which weighs 140 grams.
Fiber is important for your overall health, and eating enough of it every day helps keep your digestive system healthy by keeping you regular and feeding the good bacteria in your gut.
Additionally, eating a lot of fiber is associated with numerous health benefits, including a decreased risk of heart disease, colon cancer, and obesity.
Oranges also have a lot of beneficial nutrients, like vitamin C and calcium.
A 140-gram orange meets 92% of your daily vitamin C needs. This nutrient, which dissolves in water, is critical for your health. It helps your defense system work, makes collagen, absorbs iron, and more.
Folate is a B vitamin that helps the body’s metabolism work and helps the fetus and placenta grow, among other things.
Oranges contain not only vitamin C and folate but also small quantities of calcium, potassium, thiamine (vitamin B1), and various other nutrients.
Health benefits of oranges
Researchers have found that eating citrus fruits like oranges on a daily basis may be beneficial for your health in a number of ways.
Promote heart health
Heart disease is the main reason people die too soon in the world right now.
Oranges have many healthy nutrients and plant chemicals, like vitamin C, flavonoids, and carotenoids, that may help keep your heart healthy and lower your risk of heart disease if you eat them in the right amounts.
Also, eating oranges and orange juice on a regular basis may help lower the chance of heart disease.
A review of 10 high-quality studies found that drinking orange juice reduced the risk of several factors that can lead to heart disease, including:
- LDL (bad) cholesterol
- Blood sugar
- C-reactive protein (CRP), and a measure of inflammation, are all involved.
Citrus-fruit-rich diets protect against chronic diseases
Not only are oranges and other citrus foods beneficial for your heart, but they may also help lower your risk of other health problems, like some types of cancer and diabetes.
Research indicates that consuming a large amount of citrus fruits could potentially reduce the risk of various types of cancer.
- Cancer of the lungs and mouth
- Stomach cancer
- Cancer of the head and neck
In addition, eating a lot of fruits, especially citrus fruits, may lower your risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
Over 7,000 Australian adults participated in a study. After 5 years, those who ate a moderate amount of fruit, including oranges and other citrus fruits, had a 36% lower risk of developing diabetes compared to those who ate the least fruit.
Remember that this study only looked at the benefits of eating fruits in general. It did not look directly at the benefits of eating whole oranges. It also found that people who drank fruit juice did not see the same positive benefits.
This is probably because fruit juice has more sugar and less fiber than whole apples.
If you eat a lot of citrus fruits, they may help lower your risk of some health problems. However, keep in mind that your diet and way of life are more important than any one food.
Anemia prevention
Anemia is a condition that happens when your body doesn’t have enough iron. Eating foods that are high in vitamin C may help avoid this.
Oranges aren’t a fantastic source of iron, but they are a fantastic source of vitamin C, which helps your body process iron.
One study found that adding 120 grams of orange to meals of rice, flatbread with lentils, or a green-based dish known as saag increased the body’s iron availability by as much as 10.7%.
This will help your body absorb iron better. Try adding orange juice to lentil and bean meals or orange segments to spinach salads.
May help support immune health
Eating a lot of vegetables, which are full of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants, can help your immune system work better.
Oranges and other citrus foods contain large amounts of vitamin C.
This nutrient is very important for defense cells, like natural killer cells, to work properly. Additionally, a process known as apoptosis must occur. New, healthy cells replace old, broken cells during this process.
Vitamin C is a strong antioxidant that helps protect against reactive damage, a process that can hurt your immune system and make you more likely to get sick.
Oranges also contain many other chemicals, such as hesperidin and naringenin, that can help reduce inflammation.
Long-term inflammation can harm the immune system, so eating foods high in anti-inflammatory substances may help the immune system work better.
Oranges also have fiber, which is a food that can help keep your immune system healthy. Fiber helps keep the mix of bacteria in your gut healthy, which affects how your immune system grows and works.
High in beneficial plant compounds
Oranges have a lot of bioactive plant chemicals that can help reduce inflammation and protect cells from damage. Flavonoids, carotenoids, and vitamin C are some of these.
Flavonoids
Oranges are full of phenolic substances, especially flavonoids, which are what give them most of their antioxidant power.
- Hesperidin: Hesperidin, a fruit flavonoid, is one of the main antioxidants in oranges. It may help lower blood pressure, reduce inflammation, and protect cells from damage.
- Naringenin: Another vitamin associated with health benefits in citrus fruits is naringenin. Orange juice that is high in naringenin may help blood vessels work better and boost the body’s antioxidant defenses.
Carotenoids
Because they are high in carotenoid antioxidants, all citrus fruits are bright orange, red, and yellow.
A study discovered that drinking fresh orange juice raised the amount of carotenoid in the skin. Carotenoids are beneficial indicators of the body’s overall antioxidant state.
- Beta-cryptoxanthin: This molecule, when present in the body, shields cells from oxygen-induced damage. Your body can also convert beta-cryptoxanthin into the active form of vitamin A.
- Lycopene: Large amounts of navel oranges with red skin, also known as Cara oranges, contain lycopene, a potent antioxidant. Eating enough of it has many health benefits, and it may help keep you from getting heart disease.
Vitamin C
A large number of people know about and have studied vitamin C as an antioxidant.
It is critical to continue eating and drinking enough vitamin-C-rich foods and drinks, such as oranges. Higher levels of vitamin C in the blood and food have been linked to a lower chance of heart disease, cancer, and death from any cause.
The bottom line
To sum up, oranges are one of the most famous fruits in the world, and for beneficial reason: they taste excellent and are good for you.
Also, they have a lot of other vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants that are beneficial for you.
According to some studies, a lot of citrus fruits, like oranges, may help lower your chance of getting some health problems, such as heart disease. To put it simply, this bright orange fruit is a wonderful way to eat healthier.
