Table of contents:
- Benefits offered by oranges for body health
- 1. Helps improve brain health
- 2. Good for pregnant women and their fetuses
- 3. Helps maintain blood pressure
- 4. Maintain healthy skin and hair
- 5. Improve the health of the digestive system
For orange lovers, maybe you are familiar with the properties offered by this orange fruit. Not only consumed directly, oranges can also be processed into a variety of foods, from desserts to even the main menu.
So that you can take full advantage of oranges, first identify what benefits oranges have for the health of your body.
Benefits offered by oranges for body health
Orange is a fruit that is quite popular as a snack that has a myriad of properties for the health of the body.
This is because the fruit that grows in Southeast Asian countries and China is rich in vitamins B and C which are good for the body.
Here are some of the benefits that you can get from oranges for your health.
1. Helps improve brain health
One of the benefits offered by oranges is that it can help nourish your brain.
Apart from being rich in vitamin C, oranges also contain high levels of potassium, folate and antioxidants. All three are believed to help improve brain nerve function.
In fact, according to research from the American Academy of Neurology, drinking orange juice can help lower the risk of memory loss in men.
Men who drank orange juice every day had a 47% lower potential for decreased thinking ability than those who drank it once a month. However, further research is still needed to find out whether oranges can actually improve memory function in the human brain.
2. Good for pregnant women and their fetuses
Besides being able to improve brain function, other citrus properties are good for pregnant women and their fetuses. This is because oranges are a source of vitamin C, folate, and water, which are certainly included in the needs of a pregnant woman.
The high water content in an orange can help pregnant women stay hydrated. Not only that, the vitamin C and folate in it also help prevent cell damage and absorb iron for the body.
In fact, folate in oranges also helps reduce the risk of fetal neural tube defects that can cause brain and spinal cord abnormalities.
This condition can make the baby's spinal cord not develop properly and make part of the brain's skull disappear.
Therefore, by consuming oranges, you can get its benefits for the health of your pregnancy and fetus.
3. Helps maintain blood pressure
High blood pressure will certainly have a negative impact on your health, especially your heart and liver.
However, you can maintain blood pressure by utilizing the properties of oranges that have been proven through research from the Cleveland Clinic.
In the study, 25 patients had blockages in their arteries. These patients have tried drugs to treat high blood pressure, but the results are still not satisfactory.
Therefore, in this study they were asked to drink an orange-flavored drink that had added vitamin C in it. As a result, their blood pressure decreased slightly.
In fact, when the drink was replaced with a blander taste their blood pressure decreased.
During the two weeks of the study, they finally drank orange juice that had been added with vitamin C and vitamin E. At the end of the study, it was seen that some patients had fairly normal blood pressure.
Therefore, oranges might be used to maintain a person's blood pressure because of its vitamin C content which is quite useful for this.
4. Maintain healthy skin and hair
As previously explained, citrus fruits contain vitamin C which is quite high and provides very beneficial properties, especially for your skin and hair.
This is because vitamin C has antioxidant properties which are quite helpful in protecting the skin from the dangers of free radicals due to exposure to UV rays.
Apart from that, the vitamin C present in oranges also helps maintain the balance of collagen in the dermis. Collagen is a type of protein that is quite important in human skin and hair, especially for hair growth and reducing symptoms of premature aging.
Therefore, consumption of oranges which are rich in vitamin C is also healthy for your skin and hair.
5. Improve the health of the digestive system
In fact, most people eat citrus fruits because they have properties that are good for their digestive system.
Normally, normal digestion requires adequate water intake and oranges can be a way out of this need. This is because one small orange contains about 87 grams of water and the daily water requirement for humans is around 2.5 kg - 3.5 kg of water.
By eating oranges, the orange fruit can help meet about 3-4% of your daily needs.
In addition, about two thirds of 3 grams of oranges contain soluble fiber. Fiber like this can usually help your intestines to absorb liquid.
This is done because the insoluble fiber produces a thick gel, thus delaying the transit time of food waste in the intestine. That way, the gel helps provide a myriad of important nutrients, such as vitamins, minerals, fatty acids and amino acids.
Without the benefits of this orange, chances are that these nutrients cannot be absorbed optimally and are wasted.
The benefits offered by citrus fruits are many, but keep in mind that consuming them in excess can irritate your digestion. Therefore, you should pay attention to your consumption of citrus fruits to reduce this risk.
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