HEALTHY FOOD: Oranges

A source of: Vitamin C, Fiber, Folate, Limonene, Potassium,  Polyphenols, Pectin

Once aloft a time, an orange at Christmas was a acceptable allowance for young and old alike. A bolt of pure, acute blush and candied close flavor, an orange is consistently a abundance but decidedly in the average of winter. Every bit of the orange is a delicious, advantageous amusement that should be savored, particularly in winter when the sources of the nutrients they offer are limited.

All of us know that Vitamin C is crucial to our health. The truth is, already heard a long time ago about Vitamin C and forgot how useful this nutrient is, and it is neglected into some media attention for many years. This is wrong, since we really need a constant supply of vitamin c to support our health and battle against serious diseases. It’s in the first line of defense both inside and outside cells, protecting against the ravages of free-radical damage. Humans, along with primates, guinea pigs, and a few bird species, cannot manufacture vitamin C in their bodies and thus need constant replenishment of this crucial vitamin from dietary sources. One supply of orange supports nearly quarter of our daily vitamin c. This is the reason why oranges called healthy foods or SuperFoods.

It is very alarming to know that a lot of us are lacking in this readily available vitamin. While the RDA for vitamin C is 90 mg for adult males and 75 mg for women, up to one-third of Americans consume less than 60 mg of vitamin C daily. This insufficient supply of Vitamin C could be having a serious negative health threat. The optimal daily intake of vitamin C should be 350 mg or more a day from food.

Oranges not only rich in Vitamin C but they also provide a lot of nutients that fight sickness and bacteria and including over 170 different phytochemicals and more than 60 flavonoids. The phytonutrients in citrus include flavanones, such as hesperidin and naringenin, anthocyanins, hydroxycinnamic acids, and a variety of other polyphenols. One of the flavanones—hesperidin—seems to be the most important flavanone studied thus far, as animal studies have shown that it lowers high blood pressure and cholesterol. These nutrients working together have anti-inflammatory, antitumor, antiviral, antiallergenic, and blood clot– inhibiting properties, as well as the powerful antioxidant abilities they share with vitamin C. Here are just some of the serious conditions that the nutrients in oranges work to prevent:

• Cancer
• Cardiovascular disease
• Stroke
• Rheumatoid arthritis
• Asthma
• Osteoarthritis
• Diabetes
• Macular degeneration
• Cataracts
• Birth defects
• Cognitive decline

If you take a vitamin C supplement, it’s best to take it in the form of ascorbic acid with added bioflavonoids. Your body can absorb only so much vita-min C at one time, so take it in doses of, say, 250 mg at a time twice a day rather than 500 mg once a day. If you do take supplements, make sure to keep your daily supplement intake below the Food and Nutrition Board’s tolerable upper limit of 2,000 mg a day. In my opinion, 1,000 mg of supple-mental vitamin C is more than enough to optimize health benefits from this vitamin.

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