Is This Citrus Fruit Good for You or the Planet?

Oranges are a popular fruit all around the world, ranking right up there with apples and bananas as a global favorite. And why wouldn’t they? They’re juicy, tasty, and portable; you can easily toss one in a lunch sack or in your bag for an on-the-go snack that comes in its own convenient packaging.

Oranges are thought to originate from the tropical regions of Asia, especially the Malay Archipelago, which includes over 25,000 islands and islets situated between the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Most likely, the orange spread from its native habitat to India and the east coast of Africa, and then from there, to the eastern Mediterranean region.

Originally, oranges were mainly eaten for dessert. Orange juice, one of the most common ways to enjoy oranges today, didn’t become popular until the 1920s. But nowadays, oranges are well known for their vitamin C content and are often recommended as a go-to food when under the weather.

But are oranges good for you, like the citrus industry wants you to believe? Is orange juice really a necessary part of the “perfect breakfast”? And what about the environmental impacts of orange production? Are oranges a sustainable food? Or to return a phrase to its original context: “Is the juice worth the squeeze?”

Where Are Oranges Grown?

Oranges grow all over the world, including Asia, the Mediterranean, Africa, and both South and North America. But the leading orange producers are Brazil and the United States, which grow 30% and 10% of the world’s oranges, respectively. Brazil is also the leading consumer of oranges, followed by China and India. However, most of the oranges grown in the US are consumed domestically, whereas Brazil exports the majority of theirs. The top orange-growing states in the US include California, Arizona, Florida, and Texas. It’s estimated that over 50 million tons of oranges are produced every year.

Nutrition of Oranges

If we played a word association game called, “Name that Nutrient,” and I said “orange,” you’d almost certainly reply, “Vitamin C.” You’ve probably been told to drink orange juice, or eat oranges, when you feel a cold coming on. This advice is backed by research — vitamin C can indeed strengthen your immunity.

But oranges aren’t a one-hit-wonder. In addition to their immune-boosting properties, they offer plenty of other nutritional benefits. They contain a fair amount of calcium, potassium, and vitamin A, and even have a little bit of protein. Oranges are also high in disease-fighting antioxidants like beta-carotene, which you’ll find in other orange-colored plant foods like sweet potatoes and carrots.

And while oranges are higher in natural sugars than some other fruits and veggies, they fall at 51 on the glycemic index scale. This is considered mid-range, and isn’t likely to spike your blood sugar much (when eaten in their whole food form), thanks to their high fiber content.

One Main Health Benefit of Oranges

Oranges aren’t just juicy and nutritious. They also have a lot to offer when it comes to health benefits.

May support immunity.

Eating oranges when you feel sick may be a folk remedy, but new research suggests that there’s real science to validate the practice. In fact, oranges may contain compounds that are potent enough to help fend off even more serious germs. For instance, vitamin C is a powerful antioxidant that helps protect you from pathogens and plays a key role in cellular functions of both your innate and adaptive immune system.

A 2020 study published in the journal Antioxidants discusses that the flavonoid hesperidin, found in oranges and other citrus fruits, may have antiviral activity in the body.

Furthermore, hesperidin and vitamin C appear to help counteract cell-damaging effects of free radicals that are triggered by inflammation and viral infection. Interestingly, both the common cold and COVID-19 are caused by coronaviruses, which is why vitamin C may be helpful against both types of infections.

What About Orange Juice?

Orange juice lacks the fiber content of a whole fruit. And while some brands contain pulp — which adds a little fiber to your glass — drinking it regularly raises some concerns.

Drinking juice may spike your blood sugar more and faster than eating a whole orange, for two reasons. First, drinking juice won’t fill you up as much as eating a whole orange, so you’re likely to consume more sugar from juice than you would get from eating the fruit. A glass of orange juice could contain the juice of three oranges, and you can down it in a minute or less. But you’d be hard-pressed to eat three oranges in one minute. Second, the fiber in whole fruit buffers the sugar, which explains the orange’s relatively moderate glycemic index score of 51.

There’s also a difference between freshly-squeezed juice and the juice you can buy at most supermarkets. The “pure and natural,” “100% orange juice,” “not from concentrate” product in the orange carton is often actually a scary mixture of old, boiled juice (to prevent spoilage) that would taste just awful but for the addition of flavor packs. These are customized to a brand’s specifications for their juice’s flavoring and are added to orange juice — that may have been waiting in storage for many months — to restore taste and smell. Also added back to some juices are orange oil and essence, in addition to added sugar in some cases.

The bottom line: the best way to enjoy an orange is in its whole food form. But if you’re going to have orange juice, your best bet is first to squeeze it yourself, and then add it to smoothies along with some fat or protein to slow down the sugar absorption. Or drink it alongside a high-fiber meal to help keep your blood sugar levels steady.

Are Oranges Sustainable?

Unfortunately, as healthy as oranges are, when it comes to their social and environmental impact, not everything is peachy (or orangey?) in orange-land.

The orange industry often relies on migrant farmworkers to grow, harvest, and pack the fruit; and sometimes, they’re treated very badly. For just one horribly disturbing example, there’s the Italian migrant labor controversy of the past decade. Thousands of migrant workers, predominantly from Africa, but many from Eastern Europe, travel to find seasonal work harvesting fruits and vegetables in western Europe. But more than 80% of the migrants working in agriculture there don’t have an employment contract.

A 2012 investigation into migrant workers in Southern Italy’s orange industry found that many were sleeping on the ground and living without water, electricity, or basic hygienic services. This is largely because some farmers were taking advantage of cheap labor supply through the use of middlemen, or gangmasters.

And even though not all conditions are as extreme as those discovered in Italy in 2012, the commercial orange juice industry is rife with problems like discrimination, low wages, and poor working conditions. In Brazil, which is the world’s largest producer of oranges, orange production also contributes to deforestation of tropical rainforests. While rainforests are cut and burned primarily to create land for cattle grazing or feed, some areas have been cleared to make space for new orange groves.

Unfortunately, oranges are also subject to the overuse of agricultural chemicals. Almost all non-organic orange groves are sprayed with chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides, including, often, glyphosate — a probable human carcinogen.

Oranges are highly nutritious citrus fruits with a number of health benefits — mainly due to their high vitamin C, fiber, and antioxidant content. Their social and environmental downsides are mostly limited to commercial orange juice. If you stick to organic, fair-trade, and/or Rainforest Alliance-certified, you can largely avoid the worst ethical and sustainability issues related to large-scale orange farming. Oranges are a delicious fruit whose legendary health benefits are continuously being validated by the latest ground-breaking research.

Orange You Glad You Read This Article?

Source: Food Revolution, adapted