I posted an article yesterday about beating your sickness, complete with tips on how to make a speedier recovery. One of my suggestions was the traditional advice of making sure you had plenty of vitamin C in your diet through the consumption of such products as orange juice. I was shocked when I followed up by doing some additional research shortly after I posted it, and found the entire first page of my search warning me of the dangers of orange juice. What! When did this happen? I thought orange juice was our friend. This demanded my attention.
I started scanning through blogs and medical journals and found a staggering amount of surprising information. Apparently, orange juice became the selling point for a lot of clever business men back in the day when people first started believing that vitamin C played a major role in boosting the immune system. This was largely due to American chemist and Nobel prize-winner Linus Pauling writing the book, "Vitamin C and the Common Cold" in 1970, despite a lack of scientific backing for the text. Before long, marketers began promoting and selling orange juice because it was widely believed to be a super food that effectively combated the common cold and, of course, tasted great. And so, the campaign began.
Current claims, however, are showing a different story. Researchers are doing studies in which some groups receive set amounts of vitamin C supplements everyday and others do not. Results show that not much difference is noticed, unless you are someone who doesn't get near enough of these vitamins from your daily diet. Other studies that have given participates increased amounts of vitamins A and C have shown they can actually disrupt the body's natural balance of oxidants and antioxidants.
If the claims are true, then taking vitamin C isn't going to help you much if you have a cold. This is why the company that produced Airborne got sued. They advertised a product that claimed to keep you from getting sick (largely due to its high vitamin C levels). Since the science didn't support it, they were taken to court and eventually settled for over $20 million dollars.
Another big problem with the orange juice myth, is that modern processing uses fructose in their production. Extra sugar in your diet is never good and can cause weight gain, high cholesterol, metabolic dysfunction and more. Fruits are also a carbohydrate and, in liquid form, has a much quicker effect on fat gain. The fact that fructose is found in so many other products because it is cheaper to produce than sugar isn't helping the matter. This is not to say sugar is a bad thing entirely. On the contrary, our body needs sugar to convert into energy, however, as a society we are taking in too much these days. Even people who live in regions where oranges grow such as Florida or California, only have them seasonally. This means that other food sources were needed to supplement for vitamins and minerals, but with modern production methods, people have access to these fruits almost all year round.
Enter vegetables. Many vegetables have higher levels of vitamin C and far less sugars. Take a look at some of these comparisons, one which happens to be the all mighty kale plant:
Amount of Vitamin C
1/2 cup of red chili peppers - 181mg
100 gram serving of yellow peppers - 184mg
100 gram serving of raw kale - 120mg
1 cup broccoli - 89mg
1 cup of orange juice - 98mg
Fruits are important, this isn't an article suggesting that you cut oranges out of your diet. I would simply suggest a little research into the matter yourself and consider eating more vegetables when you are sick or needing to boost your vitamin C intake. As I said, I'm a little surprised myself in my findings, but I'm glade I found it now instead of weeks down the road. If you find any other information that confirms or refutes what I have discovered, please send it to me! Below our some of the websites I used to compile what I have written.
http://modernhealthmonk.com/orange-juice-is-killing-you/
healthaliciousness.com
http://www.realclearscience.com/blog/2011/12/for-the-last-time-orange-juice-will-not-cure-your-cold.html
I started scanning through blogs and medical journals and found a staggering amount of surprising information. Apparently, orange juice became the selling point for a lot of clever business men back in the day when people first started believing that vitamin C played a major role in boosting the immune system. This was largely due to American chemist and Nobel prize-winner Linus Pauling writing the book, "Vitamin C and the Common Cold" in 1970, despite a lack of scientific backing for the text. Before long, marketers began promoting and selling orange juice because it was widely believed to be a super food that effectively combated the common cold and, of course, tasted great. And so, the campaign began.
Current claims, however, are showing a different story. Researchers are doing studies in which some groups receive set amounts of vitamin C supplements everyday and others do not. Results show that not much difference is noticed, unless you are someone who doesn't get near enough of these vitamins from your daily diet. Other studies that have given participates increased amounts of vitamins A and C have shown they can actually disrupt the body's natural balance of oxidants and antioxidants.
If the claims are true, then taking vitamin C isn't going to help you much if you have a cold. This is why the company that produced Airborne got sued. They advertised a product that claimed to keep you from getting sick (largely due to its high vitamin C levels). Since the science didn't support it, they were taken to court and eventually settled for over $20 million dollars.
Another big problem with the orange juice myth, is that modern processing uses fructose in their production. Extra sugar in your diet is never good and can cause weight gain, high cholesterol, metabolic dysfunction and more. Fruits are also a carbohydrate and, in liquid form, has a much quicker effect on fat gain. The fact that fructose is found in so many other products because it is cheaper to produce than sugar isn't helping the matter. This is not to say sugar is a bad thing entirely. On the contrary, our body needs sugar to convert into energy, however, as a society we are taking in too much these days. Even people who live in regions where oranges grow such as Florida or California, only have them seasonally. This means that other food sources were needed to supplement for vitamins and minerals, but with modern production methods, people have access to these fruits almost all year round.
Enter vegetables. Many vegetables have higher levels of vitamin C and far less sugars. Take a look at some of these comparisons, one which happens to be the all mighty kale plant:
Amount of Vitamin C
1/2 cup of red chili peppers - 181mg
100 gram serving of yellow peppers - 184mg
100 gram serving of raw kale - 120mg
1 cup broccoli - 89mg
1 cup of orange juice - 98mg
Fruits are important, this isn't an article suggesting that you cut oranges out of your diet. I would simply suggest a little research into the matter yourself and consider eating more vegetables when you are sick or needing to boost your vitamin C intake. As I said, I'm a little surprised myself in my findings, but I'm glade I found it now instead of weeks down the road. If you find any other information that confirms or refutes what I have discovered, please send it to me! Below our some of the websites I used to compile what I have written.
http://modernhealthmonk.com/orange-juice-is-killing-you/
healthaliciousness.com
http://www.realclearscience.com/blog/2011/12/for-the-last-time-orange-juice-will-not-cure-your-cold.html
