Is orange juice healthy ? According to many health gurus as of late, orange juice and other fruit juices should be relegated to the category of foods-that-normal-people-eat-but-are-clearly-going-to-kill-you. You ’ ve credibly heard them before. “ It ’ s that deadly fructose, ” they say. “ Juice is nothing more than ‘ sugar water, ‘ ” they say. “ Drink orange juice every day at breakfast and you ’ ll get the ‘ beetus, ” they say .
good I say, how about we look at the differences between the traditional orange juice that your ancestors many generations second probably consumed ( and lived to tell the fib ) —and the modern, commercialized adaptation of OJ we see nowadays. There are meaning differences, and while I ’ thousand not precisely jumping on the “ madly fructose ‘ beetus-maker ” bandwagon, I do think there ’ s some legitimate cautions to be made against refined orange juice. vitamin a well as some pretty amazing benefits to highlight as to why the real deal is actually perfectly healthy for you .
Contents
- 1 Why you should drink more fresh orange juice (and avoid the highly-processed kind)
- 1.1 It’s eight-thousand times more delicious than store-bought
- 1.2 There’s chemical flavoring in your ‘100% Pure’ OJ
- 1.3 Fresh OJ contains beneficial enzymes and other nutrients that are destroyed in pasteurization
- 1.4 Fresh OJ contains lots of vitamin C and bioflavanoids, making it a powerful antioxidant source
- 1.5 Orange juice is an anti-aging collagen booster
- 1.6 Fresh orange juice is a good source of magnesium and other minerals and vitamins
- 1.7 Orange juice supports your adrenals and thyroid
- 1.8 Orange juice contains beneficial natural sugars that lower stress and boost metabolism
- 2 How to Make Your Own Orange Juice at Home
Why you should drink more fresh orange juice (and avoid the highly-processed kind)
I could probably give you a lot more, but here ’ s 8 reasons to start with.
It’s eight-thousand times more delicious than store-bought
I mean, duh. I don ’ thymine think we even need to discuss the frozen concentrate version in comparison here, either .
Life is just besides short circuit to drink mediocre juice. Fresh-squeezed OJ is the freaking ambrosia of the gods. May it accompany all your breakfasts, all of the days of your life. Amen .
There’s chemical flavoring in your ‘100% Pure’ OJ
Yeah, have you heard about this even ?
so, obviously even when it says, “ 100 % orange juice, ” and the pronounce only has one ingredient ( orange juice ), the juice is probable to contain flavorings out of chemicals like to what perfume makers use, and they don ’ t have to include that on the label. ( Because the synthetic season chemicals were “ derived ” from oranges ). Manufacturers do this to keep the spirit of the juice consistent from batch to batch, and besides because if they didn ’ metric ton add the chemical relish, the juice would be reasonably a lot tasteless .
After squeezing the oranges, the juice is stored in these huge vats where the oxygen is removed—that prevents the juice from spoiling ( for over a year ), but besides takes out all the spirit. then, in come the lapp people who make perfumes for Dior and Calvin Klein, to whip up some imposter chemical “ spirit packs ” to add to the juice. ( source ) Eau de Minute Maid, and the like. Yum .
boughten orange juice is besides likely to be loaded with fluoride and early water-based chemicals, because unless it ’ mho “ not from concentrate, ” most orange juice is concentrated with those chemical “ flavor packs ” at the plant, and then reconstituted later on with solicit water system. And who knows what ’ mho in that .
fresh orange juice made at home is, obviously, barren of chemical “ relish packs, ” but does contain, you know, lots of actual spirit. And alternatively of contributing to your toxic cargo, it helps your body eliminate harmful substances because it contains thus many beneficial antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, and enzymes that are supportive to your torso ’ sulfur detoxification pathways .
Fresh OJ contains beneficial enzymes and other nutrients that are destroyed in pasteurization
Orange juice contains beneficial antioxidant polyphenols as well as key digestive enzymes —all of which are completely destroyed when the juice is pasteurized. Scorching the juice in the name of food “ safety ” besides cuts manner down on vitamins, specially vitamin C. These are all nutrients which are identical sensitive to heat and oxidation, and will break down when exposed to the high temperatures of the pasteurization process in commercial juice production. so sometimes, manufacturers will add back in vitamin C to compensate for the loss .
But fresh OJ is loaded with all those bang-up naturally-occurring antioxidants and enzymes ! Plus, while pasteurization is intended to protect against health concerns associated with juice production, raw orange juice naturally possesses antimicrobial properties from the vitamin C, citric acidic, and early compounds within it. When you keep all of those in tact, rather of oxidizing the bullshit out of it, orange juice protects itself arsenic well as supporting your health !
Fresh OJ contains lots of vitamin C and bioflavanoids, making it a powerful antioxidant source
Speaking of antioxidants, always wonder why vitamin C is supposed to be so supportive to your immune system ? It ’ s because it actually increases your white blood cell count —as long as it ’ s coming from a solid food reservoir, with the entire C complex integral. Vitamin C is one of the most major and important antioxidants your body needs for optimum health. And as we all know, orange juice is a great source for it—especially when it ’ sulfur crude .
Fresh, bare-assed OJ besides is rich in bioflavanoids, which are establish pigments that enhance the bioavailability of nutrients such as vitamin C. even when added to synthetic vitamin C, bioflavanoids significantly increase how much C is absorbed into your organization. Combine them with the rich and untampered-with C complex in newly oranges, and you ’ ve got one of the best sources of one of the best antioxidants you could possibly consume .
Orange juice is an anti-aging collagen booster
Put down that countenance of gelatin-rich bone broth, y ’ all. Did you know that your body can’t actually assimilate and produce collagen without vitamin C ? Yup !
All the gelatin in the world won ’ deoxythymidine monophosphate help fill those fine lines and support your clamber ’ s elasticity without adequate vitamin C. The antioxidant vitamin is essential for collagen production, which is not alone good for looking younger, but supporting a goodly digestive system, firm bones & teeth, and more. And no, a C addendum much international relations and security network ’ deoxythymidine monophosphate adequate, because unless it ’ s a whole-food kind, it won ’ t contain the broad vitamin C complex. Getting vitamin C from food sources is ideal, and orange juice has batch of it. so if you want the beauty benefits of collagen in your broth, drink your juice, excessively !
Fresh orange juice is a good source of magnesium and other minerals and vitamins
Orange juice is a storm mineral power station. One quart of orange juice contains over 100 milligrams of magnesium! That ’ s a meaning dowry of the sum of magnesium you should be getting every day. Magnesium is an fabulously significant means. It ’ second necessary for cellular metamorphosis of ATP, or the energy your consistency needs to carry out all of its functions, equally well as all your steroidal hormones .
Worried about all that carbohydrate you ’ d be drink, though ? Well, the magnesium that comes in your OJ is actually essential for blood sugar regulation, besides, and keeps blood glucose levels normalized. american samoa well as potassium, another samara alimentary found bountifully in orange juice. potassium is involved in regulating both blood carbohydrate and insulin levels. potassium works by getting carbohydrate into the cell, which regulates cellular metabolism and makes use of that sugar by using it as fuel .
potassium has other benefits, excessively. It determines cellular hydration, by keeping sodium in circulation, which regulates body of water retention and blood volume. potassium is besides critical for carbohydrate metamorphosis, protein synthesis, and much more. Just one little 8 snow leopard glass of fresh OJ provides about 15% of your daily requirements for potassium .
In addition to all those amazing minerals, crude orange juice boasts significant amounts of vitamin bc ( 19 % of your DV from one 8 ounce glass ), B-6, vitamin b1, choline, and vitamin A. And the vitamin C count ? A whopping 207% of your recommend daily rate in one little glass.
Orange juice supports your adrenals and thyroid
The many anti-stress nutrients in orange juice, including magnesium, vitamin C, and potassium—act as a support system for your adrenals, thyroid, and stress-response system. These nutrients are substantive in the production and conversion of active thyroid gland hormone T3. Without them, your thyroid can ’ thymine keep up with your body ’ randomness hormonal demands, and overall physiological stress is increased .
When the adrenal glands are overworked due to chronic stress and lack of nutritional stores, they may not be able to supply your consistency with hormones such as hydrocortisone, in the amounts needed to maintain homeostasis in your everyday life. For example, hydrocortisone is supposed to rise in the morning, get you up and ready and hungry to eat a nice boastfully breakfast, and then taper off once your belly is entire. But your adrenals can ’ metric ton produce hydrocortisone or function normally without adequate potassium, magnesium, vitamin C, B vitamins, and other nutrients. You ’ ll get a decent big drug of those of them in a looking glass of fresh orange juice, though !
If you in truth want to boost your OJ ’ s thyroid-and-adrenal-supporting superpowers, you ’ ll want to add a few shakes of ocean salt to your cup. Salt down-regulates stress hormones and supports both of these glands vastly. But overall, OJ itself contains an impressive range of nutrients which work together synergistically to support hormone health .
And this international relations and security network ’ t even touching the early big beneficial nutrient OJ provides—sugar .
Orange juice contains beneficial natural sugars that lower stress and boost metabolism
Yes, that ’ s right—beneficial sugars. If you think all carbohydrate ( and particularly fructose, that devil ) is evil, you ’ re misinformed .
The sugar in orange juice comes in three different forms—sucrose, glucose, and fructose. But sucrose is glucose and fructose bonded together, so actually we ’ re barely dealing with glucose and fructose here. Taking that a step far, fructose gets converted into glucose in the liver—so when all ’ s said and done, we ’ ra just talking about glucose .
And what ’ s glucose full for ? Oh, I don ’ triiodothyronine know… providing fuel for every single cell in your body to function, for one thing. If you don ’ thymine consume glucose from carbohydrates providing sugars, your body will do whatever it needs to make it itself—including taking protein from your muscleman tissue to turn it into that much-needed sugar. Everyone knows you need a sealed level of carbohydrate ( that ’ d be glucose ) in your rake, differently you ’ vitamin d die .
Having adequate glucose intake supports your body ’ s metamorphosis in a multitude of ways. When you ’ re besides low in blood sugar ( which happens when you avoid carbohydrate ), stress hormones such as epinephrine and hydrocortisone rocket to damaging levels, because they ’ re creditworthy for restoring the boodle to your bloodstream ( like by using that cool eating-your-own-muscles antic ). But give yourself some glucose straight-up ? That sends the message to your consistency that, “ Hey, we ’ ra good hera, stress hormones. You can chill. ”
cellular metabolism—the process by which your body produces energy in order to function—is entirely dependent on providing enough fuel to the cells. What ’ s the fuel they need most ? ( Yup—you ’ re onto me… ) Glucose. And you get batch of it, from a natural solid food informant, with orange juice .
I ’ megabyte tellin ’ you guys. sugary orange juice. It does a torso good .
How to Make Your Own Orange Juice at Home
But of naturally, the same probably can ’ triiodothyronine be said of the hyper-processed OJ you find at the storehouse. There are some estimable brands out there which are either flash or low-temp pasteurized, minimally processed, and
There are several different ways to fresh-squeeze your own orange juice, using a variety of different tools. One tool, though, is amazingly ineffective at making orange juice—a unconstipated vegetable reamer. Those big beastly juicers are great for things like carrots, beets, and greens, but not indeed good at managing citrus fruits. thus, you ’ ll want to get an actual citrus reamer to get the occupation done .
There ’ s some reasonably low-tech gadgets like these :
And then there ’ s some that are a little more high-powered. I fair got this thing and am obsessed :
I ’ ll have to upload a video soon showing how I use it. It ’ s actually elementary, makes a long ton of juice in a short-circuit sum of fourth dimension, and international relations and security network ’ thymine unmanageable to clean. Highly recommended .
Oh, and by the way ? Oranges are presently ranked number 31 on the EWG pesticide residue data tilt —meaning they are well outside the “ Dirty Dozen, ” most pesticide-contaminated fruits & veggies. A few spots up and they ’ d have made the “ Clean Fifteen. ” For me, that means I ’ megabyte okay with buying non-organic oranges. If I lived in a place where oranges would be local anesthetic to me, I ’ five hundred make the effort to buy local and farmer-direct, but here in the Pacific Northwest, that international relations and security network ’ t the case. thus, a colossus, bum bag of them from Costco it is. That makes me lots of amazing fresh juice, and cheaper than already-made juice from the store !