The New Complete Book of Food
the refrigerator may lose only 2 percent of their vitamin C in three months. Prepared, pas-
teurized “fresh” juices in glass bottles hold their vitamin C better than the same juice sold in
plastic bottles or waxed paper cartons that let oxygen pass through. Oranges are not a natural
source of calcium, but some orange juices are calcium-fortified.
Canned oranges and orange juice retain most of their vitamin C. As soon as the can
is opened, the oranges or juice should be removed and transferred to a glass containers to
prevent the fruit or juice from absorbing lead used to seal the can. The absorption of lead
is triggered by oxygen, which enters the can when the seal is broken. No lead is absorbed
while the can is intact.
Since 2000, following several deaths attributed to unpasteurized apple juice contami-
nated with E. coli O157:H7, the FDA has required that all juices sold in the United States be
pasteurized to inactivate harmful organisms such as bacteria and mold.
Drying. Orange peel may be dried for use as a candy or flavoring. Dried orange peel may be
treated with sulfites (sodium sulfite, sodium bisulfite, and the like) to keep it from darkening.
In sensitive people, sulfites can trigger serious allergic reactions, including potentially fatal
anaphylactic shock.Medical Uses and/or Benefits
Lower cholesterol levels. Oranges are high in pectin, which appears to slow the body’s
absorption of fats and lower cholesterol levels. There are currently two theories about how
this happens. The first is that the pectins dissolve into a gel that sops up fats in your stom-
ach so that your body cannot absorb them. The second is that bacteria in the gut digest the
fiber and then produce short chain fatty acids that slow down the liver’s natural production
of cholesterol.
Possible lower risk of heart attack. In the spring of 1998, an analysis of data from the records
for more than 80,000 women enrolled in the long-running Nurses’ Health Study at Harvard
School of Public Health/Brigham and Women’s Hospital, in Boston, demonstrated that a diet
providing more than 400 mcg folate and 3 mg vitamin B 6 daily, either from food or supple-
ments, might reduce a woman’s risk of heart attack by almost 50 percent. Although men
were not included in the study, the results were assumed to apply to them as well.
However, data from a meta-analysis published in the Journal of the American Medical
Association in December 2006 called this theory into question. Researchers at Tulane Univer-
sity examined the results of 12 controlled studies in which 16,958 patients with preexisting
cardiovascular disease were given either folic acid supplements or placebos (“look-alike” pills
with no folic acid) for at least six months. The scientists, who found no reduction in the risk
of further heart disease or overall death rates among those taking folic acid, concluded that
further studies will be required to determine whether taking folic acid supplements reduces
the risk of cardiovascular disease.
Lower risk of stroke. Various nutrition studies have attested to the power of adequate potas-
sium to keep blood pressure within safe levels. For example, in the 1990s, data from the