YES, I know. LOL!! The pic isn’t a real lime. It’s all I had on hand. It may be time for a grocery store run…
Up until the weather we had last week, I’d have said we could have used even the thought of citrus to make our days a little sunnier! And then (in Iowa, anyway) the weather went and got gorgeous. I mean seriously! We even turned off our furnace and opened the windows…on the same day we had the fall furnace service. Ha! Naturally, the 70s couldn’t last and this morning we scraped frost off the car. It was fun while it lasted, though.
I have had citrus on the brain, though, recently. I was thinking about one of my favorite recipes (lemon & garlic chicken) while sipping on some limeade. We all know that citrus fruits such as lemons, oranges, and grapefruits are high in vitamin C. But beyond that, what other health benefits do we get from adding citrus to our diets?
Ok, refresher time. Why do we need a good amount of vitamin C in our diets? Vitamin C is needed for healthy skin, bones, blood vessels, and connective tissues. It helps the body absorb some iron from foods, so add a citrus vinaigrette to your spinach salad or add lemon juice to your lentil soup! It is critical to immune system support and may help fight inflammation. In the case of fighting inflammation, vitamin C could then also help prevent many different diseases. Citrus fruits are also high in flavonoids, nutrients that both give the fruits their colors and aromas, as well as possibly fighting inflammation. In addition to vitamin C and flavonoids, citrus fruits provide B vitamins, potassium, phosphorus, magnesium, and copper. The body needs small amounts of all of these nutrients to function properly. Also, vitamin C is water-soluble so the body doesn’t store it up. Massive and regular megadoses (over 2000 mg/day) are not healthy, but regular intake of normal doses either through food or supplements is safe and good for you.
Citrus fruits are good sources of dietary fiber, both soluble and insoluble. Soluble fiber can help fight LDL cholesterol, while insoluble fiber can boost gut health. The recommended daily fiber intake, which nearly no one actually gets, is roughly 14 grams fiber per 1000 calories. One cup of orange segments has roughly 60 calories and 4 grams of fiber. So it’s a low-calorie, high-benefit snack.
Citrus fruits are lower in sugar, overall, although oranges and grapefruit have the highest amounts. (Adding brown sugar and a maraschino cherry and broiling a grapefruit half definitely increases the calorie count…but it’s delicious!)
Water!! Even during the winter, it’s still important to drink water. An average orange is made up of 88% water! While eating enough oranges to get your water intake for the day is inadvisable for the total calorie count and possible issues with citric acid and cavities, you can still count an orange or a grapefruit toward your daily water goal. Adding a squeeze of lemon to a glass of water with a meal is also beneficial; the acid may aid in digestion and the water will help fill you up so you don’t eat as much. But, again, don’t sip on lemon water all day. The acid intake over long periods can aggravate cavities.
Let’s talk about how to get more citrus fruit in your diet. Is it better fresh, frozen, canned, cooked, whole, or juiced? First, juices are delicious, however, some juices have added sugars as well as lots of fructose from the fruit, and they don’t all have the dietary fiber present in the whole fruit. So keep the juices to a minimum. Don’t eliminate them entirely, just don’t rely on them for your daily citrus intake. Mostly, look for ways to incorporate citrus fruits into your diet fresh and whole, or as juice without added sugars, for example, as bottled lemon juice. Cooking can break down vitamin C so it isn’t as beneficial, although it’ll still be delicious. (Case in point, my lemon & garlic chicken is marinated and then baked. And scrumptious!)
Citrus! It’s good for you! How will you get more citrus in your diet? Cheers!