What Can Happen To Your Body If You Start Eating Oranges

In a time of transoceanic travels and rare medical advances, sailors used to fear scurvy, a disease that affected them the most. Today, we know that scurvy is no more than a deficiency of vitamin C in our body and that by simply eating an orange a day, it can be cured.

Our Bright Side team wanted to show you all the benefits eating an orange a day can offer your body so that you can stay healthy.

1. It aids with gut health.

According to some studies, the daily consumption of oranges can have a positive effect on our intestinal microbiota. It also causes a drop in glucose, insulin sensitivity, and LDL (bad cholesterol). Orange juice acts as a prebiotic and promotes the growth of gut bacteria, which is important for our health.

2. It can help you on your weight loss journey.

In order to achieve our weight loss goals, we need to work out and have a balanced diet, which means eating all the nutrients our bodies need to function properly. Luckily for us, oranges are very rich in essential nutrients; by eating just one orange a day, we can cover some of them.

A medium-sized orange provides the body with just 60 calories. The fruit also has 3 grams of fiber, which provides benefits like better bowel health, good cholesterol, and a lower risk of heart disease, and it also slows down the way our bodies absorb sugar.

Fiber can also help us feel full for longer periods of time. Having a diet rich in it can help reduce our cravings and our calorie intake, resulting in weight loss. When you’re eating an orange, make sure to consume not only the juice but also the orange flesh since that’s where most of the fiber is located.

3. It assists your body in the creation of collagen.

One orange provides around 70 milligrams of vitamin C. This vital nutrient has incredible benefits too, like improving iron absorption, fighting inflammation, and lowering blood pressure, and it also helps to form collagen in our bones.

Collagen is a protein that our bodies produce. It gives structural support to tissues and helps in important processes, like tissue repair and immune response. As we get older, our collagen production slows down and our elastin gets lost, resulting in aging and our skin looking saggy and dry.

It’s not possible to stop collagen loss altogether because it’s part of getting older, but we can try to slow the process, and eating an orange a day might make a difference.

4. It can be useful to maintain good eyesight.

Researchers say that by eating an orange a day, you are more likely to have a 60% reduced risk of developing macular degeneration, an eye disease that can blur your central vision to the point where even glasses won’t help you to be able to see. This condition can form due to the natural process of aging.

Vitamin C is very important for our eyesight since it contributes to having healthy blood vessels in our eyes, and it can help to combat cataracts. If we want to have good vision in the future, it might be a good idea to start watching our daily vitamin C intake.

5. It protects important organs, like the heart and brain.

According to a study, having normal levels of vitamin C in our blood is associated with an improvement in focus, memory, and attention. Oranges can help our mind to stay sharp as we age, and one medium-sized orange provides the recommended daily intake of vitamin C that our body needs to stay healthy. This essential vitamin is also a powerful antioxidant that fights against free radicals that can cause damage to our brain cells.

A review of 10 studies found that the consumption of orange juice may be beneficial in improving some cardiovascular disease risk factors. This means that this delicious juice might help prevent heart disease, which is the number one cause of premature death.

Some symptoms of scurvy or vitamin C deficiency

Scurvy is a condition that is very rare since most of us get enough vitamin C from our daily diet, but it has happened before. Vitamin C helps our body to produce collagen, and if not enough collagen is produced in our body, the tissue starts breaking down.

Some of the symptoms of scurvy are fatigue, lethargy, anemia, gum disease, teeth loss, poor wound healing, depression, swelling, and bone pain.

BONUS: Eat the peel to get more nutrients.

The orange peel may have a bitter taste, but it has some benefits to it. This part of the orange has about 4 times more fiber than the pulp. It also has 3 times more vitamin C than the inner fruit, as well as vitamins A, B1, B2, B6, and B9.

Despite being rich in nutrients, eating the peel might have some drawbacks, like the fact that it may contain pesticide residue and that it’s not easy to digest. Perhaps thoroughly washing the fruit and grating some of the peel over your meal might be enough to enjoy its nutritious benefits.

If you’re not sure about the daily intake of nutrients you’re getting, contact your doctor. Remember that everything in big quantities can be harmful.

Which benefit surprised you the most? Have you ever tried eating an orange peel? Would you try it? Please tell us in the comments.