Health comparison of oranges and orange juice

This post compares nutrition and probable health effects of oranges and orange juice.

The table below shows that oranges are rich in calcium, but not its juice, unless the juice is fortified. Oranges have 1.8 times the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) of calcium, per 2000 kcal, in principle only beaten by dairy products and vegetables, while most other foods have way lower calcium content. Calcium is important for many functions in the body, so this is one of the important nutrients to get from oranges.

Oranges, but not the juice, are rich in dietary fiber. Fiber is good for the production of the beneficial Short Chain Fatty Acids (SCFAs), by gut bacteria. The SCFAs are important for the health of the large intestine and when entering the body they are important for the metabolic system, for instance cells regulation of glucose and reduced fat storing (den Besten et al, 2013; Koh et al, 2016). The juice doesn’t contribute to these positive metabolic effects, since it almost lacks fiber.

One cup of juice, 240 ml, equals about two oranges and it doesn’t give the same satiety, due to lack of fiber, therefore causing more hunger. The biggest risk with juice is that it’s easy to drink too much, on top of a meal, and thus consume more calories and sugar, i.e. overeating, which might lead to metabolic issues. Oranges, being more fibrous and satiating, are unlikely to be eaten in amounts that could be negative, or to contribute to overeating.

Both oranges and orange juice are rich in potassium, which is important for the cardiovascular system, the brain, the muscles and the bones (Filosa et al, 2006; Haddy et al, 2006; Kong et al, 2017; Lindinger and Sjögaard 1991; Sun et al, 2017). Potassium is vital for the body’s performance. Therefore, orange juice has some justification, but eating the whole fruit is recommended.

Oranges and its juice are among the top foodstuff for vitamin C content and they are also rich in some other antioxidants (Aschoff et al, 2015), as well as folate and thiamin (vitamin B1), all beneficial nutrients for the body.

The conclusion is that oranges are good for health and good to include in the diet, especially for people that don’t eat dairy products, while juice might not reduce hunger much and therefore might contribute to overeating, but apart from that has some good nutrition, so could be drunken a little.

The table shows nutrition per 2000 kcal, which is close to an average persons daily need of energy. The nutrient contents have been compared to the RDAs, so they are displayed as a factor of RDAs. The data comes from the US Department of Agriculture’s FoodData Central (https://fdc.nal.usda.gov) and has been recalculated from nutrients per 100 g.

The reference list is located below the table.

Orange vs Juice, Nutrition per 2000 kcal

References:

Aschoff et al, 2015
Julian K Aschoff et al. In Vitro Bioaccessibility of Carotenoids, Flavonoids, and Vitamin C from Differently Processed Oranges and Orange Juices. J. Agric. Food Chem. 2015; 63(2):578-587.

den Besten et al, 2013
Gijs den Besten et al. The role of short-chain fatty acids in the interplay between diet, gut microbiota, and host energy metabolism. JLR. 2013; 54:2325-40.

Filosa et al, 2006
Jessica A Filosa et al. Local potassium signaling couples neuronal activity to vasodilation in the brain. Nature Neuroscience. 2006; 9:1397-1403.

Haddy et al, 2006
Francis J. Haddy et al. Role of potassium in regulating blood flow and blood pressure. Am. J. Physiol. Regul. Integr. Comp. Physiol. 2006; 290(3):R546-552.

Koh et al, 2016
Ara Koh et al. From Dietary Fiber to Host Physiology: Short-Chain Fatty Acids as Key Bacterial Metabolites. Cell. 2016; 165(6):1332-45.

Kong et al, 2017
S H Kong et al. Dietary potassium intake is beneficial to bone health in a low calcium intake population: the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) (2008-2011). Osteoporos Int. 2017; 28(5):1577-1585.

Lindinger and Sjögaard 1991
Michael I. Lindinger & Gisela Sjögaard. Potassium Regulation during Exercise and Recovery. Sports Medicine. 1991; 11:382-401.

Sun et al, 2017
Yong Sun et al. Dietary potassium regulates vascular calcification and arterial stiffness. JCI Insight. 2017; 2(19): e94920.

USDA FoodData Central
https://fdc.nal.usda.gov