{"id":109556,"date":"2026-01-02T17:01:43","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T17:01:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=109556"},"modified":"2026-01-02T17:01:43","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T17:01:43","slug":"the-surprising-benefits-of-a-glass-of-orange-juice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=109556","title":{"rendered":"The surprising benefits of a glass of orange juice"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n \t<\/i> Read Time:<\/span>10 Minute, 6 Second <\/div>\n\n <\/div>
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The habit of drinking a glass of orange juice can have a considerable effect on your health.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re anything like me, then your idea of breakfast heaven includes an ice-cold glass of freshly squeezed orange juice. The trouble is that this sweet citrus drink has been demonised for some time.<\/p>\n

While oranges themselves are packed full of vitamins, in drink form,\u00a0experts warn\u00a0that orange juice delivers a sudden rush of sugar to the blood. Over time, this daily sugar spike could lead to insulin resistance, raising the risk of diabetes, heart disease and obesity.<\/p>\n

Or so the thinking goes. Yet actually, research is starting to show that despite its high sugar content, a daily glass of orange juice could bring all manner of health benefits.<\/p>\n

Why we got orange juice wrong<\/strong><\/h2>\n

To begin with, cohort studies \u2013 which track tens of thousands of people over time \u2013 show that individuals who\u00a0eat lots of citrus fruits\u00a0are less likely to go on to suffer from heart disease and stroke.<\/p>\n

However, most of these large studies asked people about how much fruit they ate, not how much fruit juice they drank. Eating whole fruit can have a substantially different effect on the body compared with drinking fruit juice.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst of all, it\u2019s the speed of eating,\u201d says Federico Amati, a nutrition scientist at Imperial College London, UK. Amati points out that if you eat two or three oranges \u2013 the average amount it takes to make a small glass of orange juice \u2013 \u201cit\u2019s going to take you longer to eat them, chew them and swallow them\u201d.<\/p>\n

He adds, \u201cIn fact, most people probably wouldn\u2019t want to eat two or three, as that\u2019s quite a lot of oranges. Whereas when you\u2019re drinking a small glass, in a couple of seconds it\u2019s gone.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Whole fruit is also rich in fibre, which feeds the good bacteria in your gut, and is linked to health benefits such as a reduced risk of\u00a0cardiovascular disease and colon cancer. Fibre also\u00a0slows down the flow of sugars\u00a0into our bloodstream. Orange juice \u2013 and other fruit juices \u2013 are made by crushing and pulping whole fruits,\u00a0which strips them of most of their fibre.<\/p>\n

Orange juice has been somewhat unfairly demonised (Credit: Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The end result is that if you compared a person\u2019s blood sugar response from eating a whole orange versus drinking a juice, the whole orange would result in a fairly gradual rise, whereas a glass of orange juice has a more dramatic effect.<\/p>\n

\u201c[In orange juice], the sugars have been freed from their fibre capsules, and so they are absorbed very rapidly in the mouth and in the stomach. So that will lead to quite a rapid, quick rise in blood sugar,\u201d says Amati.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, for most people, such a rise is not a problem because insulin is released, which then removes sugar from the bloodstream. However, for someone with diabetes, a glass of OJ may not be such a good idea.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the challenge with fruit juices generally is that they are technically free sugars, but that\u2019s not all they are,\u201d says Amati. \u201cSo yes, they do make your blood sugar go up, but \u2013 especially if they\u2019re freshly squeezed \u2013 they also have bioactive nutrients in them like vitamin C. So it\u2019s not about just freaking out because of the sugar, it\u2019s really contextualising it into the whole diet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Heart and brain health<\/strong><\/h2>\n

There are signs that frequent orange juice drinking could still confer benefits, despite high sugar content. For example, one\u00a0meta-analysis\u00a0which pooled the results of 10 randomised controlled trials (RCTs) found that drinking 500ml (17 fl oz) of orange juice a day was associated with lower blood glucose levels, improved insulin function and lower levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL), known as \u201cbad cholesterol\u201d \u2013 all signs of good heart health.<\/p>\n

Another meta-analysis found that\u00a0drinking a glass of orange juice\u00a0every day for a matter of weeks was enough to lower systolic blood pressure in overweight and obese adults, as well as raise levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL), often referred to as \u201cgood cholesterol\u201d.<\/p>\n

It isn\u2019t just heart health; orange juice could be good for the brain, too. In\u00a0one trial, 24 healthy men aged between 30 and 45 drank either 240ml (8 fl oz) of 100% orange juice, or a sugary drink containing the same amount of calories. The participant\u2019s mood and cognitive function were tested before and six hours after drinking the beverage. Not only did the mental faculties of the OJ group increase after gulping down the drink, but their subjective feelings of alertness also did.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the placebo, what we saw is a decline [in cognitive performance] over the day, with a much worse performance after six hours,\u201d says Daniel Lamport, associate professor of nutritional neuroscience at the University of Reading, UK, who led the study. \u201cThat\u2019s what you normally see, as people tend to get more tired and fatigued throughout the day.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are differences in the health effects of eating an orange and drinking it\u2019s juice (Credit: Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

However the participants who downed orange juice managed to retain their alertness. A glass of orange juice could therefore be a better choice than a sugary drink, potentially boosting brain power and focus in the short term \u2013 a good thing if you\u2019ve got an important meeting scheduled in your diary.<\/p>\n

There are signs orange juice could have a long-term impact on brain health and ageing too. In a\u00a0second study, Lamport and his team asked 37 healthy older adults aged 60-81 to drink either two glasses of 100% orange juice every day for eight weeks, or two orange-flavoured drinks which contained a similar amount of sugar and calories. Older adults who drank orange juice had significantly better cognitive function compared to the placebo group after eight weeks.<\/p>\n

There are plausible explanations for why orange juice might improve health. Oranges are packed full of\u00a0vitamin C, which boosts immunity, aids iron absorption and helps make collagen for skin. They also contain other vitamins and minerals such as folate, calcium, potassium and thiamine (vitamin B1).<\/p>\n

Antioxidant benefits<\/strong><\/h2>\n

However the molecules thought to be behind orange\u2019s protective role in heart and brain health are known as\u00a0flavonoids\u00a0\u2013 a class of plant compounds found in fruits and vegetables that give plants their vibrant colours and help protect them from stress and infection. Flavonoids have\u00a0antioxidant properties, which means they can neutralise so-called \u201cfree radicals\u201d \u2013 extremely reactive chemicals that can damage cells and accelerate biological ageing. Flavonoids are also well known for their anti-inflammatory properties.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cInflammation is an important part of the immune response, but when you have excessive inflammation, or if you have sustained inflammation that doesn\u2019t calm down, it damages your tissues and it\u2019s detrimental for pretty much every body system,\u201d says Amati. \u201cBy having anti-inflammatory compounds available when your body wants to switch off inflammation, it\u2019s like having the fire hydrants available when you need to put the fire out.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

One compound in particular that has received a lot of interest is hesperidin \u2013 a flavonoid present in citrus fruits. Hesperidin is thought to be behind orange juice\u2019s\u00a0ability to influence blood pressure. For example, a\u00a02025 study\u00a0suggests that orange juice \u2013 and hesperidin \u2013 could work its wonders by activating genes that help to lower inflammation and help blood vessels relax.<\/p>\n

The study\u00a0tracked 85 adults who drank 500ml of pure pasteurised orange juice every day for two months. After the 60 days were up, blood tests showed that many of the genes associated with triggering inflammation and high blood pressure had become less active.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s thought that flavonoids, and hesperidin in particular, help blood vessels relax by increasing levels of the gas nitric oxide in the inner lining of blood vessels, known as the endothelium.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe endothelium has this function of making your vessels stiffer if you need your blood pressure to go up, for example, if you need to run away,\u201d says Amati. \u201cBut then it also needs to be able to relax as well, because otherwise you\u2019d continuously have stiffened blood vessels, which would put too much pressure on the heart and the lungs. So you need the endothelium to be able to relax and squeeze when needed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Improved blood flow could also explain the cognitive benefits of OJ. Research shows that Alzheimer\u2019s disease and other types of dementia may be \u2013 at least in part \u2013 caused by\u00a0altered blood flow\u00a0in the brain.<\/p>\n

According to Lamport, there is also good evidence showing that flavonoids generally can improve cognitive function and mood. For instance, he cites research showing that eating flavonoids\u00a0improves the performance\u00a0of rodents on a maze task and results in\u00a0more neuronal connections\u00a0being formed in the hippocampus, a region of the brain responsible for forming new memories. Other foods that are rich in flavonoids include blueberries, tea, grapes, wine and dark chocolate.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOne possible mechanism is that [flavonoids] essentially improve blood flow to your brain, so that then makes you feel more alert, and able to do better on cognitive tasks,\u201d says Lamport.<\/p>\n

According to Lamport, increased blood flow over a longer time period could also improve the brain\u2019s ability to form new connections between neurons, or protect against the decline of such connections.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why \u2013 potentially \u2013 flavonoids are so helpful in older adults, because this is a time period where you naturally see this decline in neuronal plasticity and neuronal connections, so [flavonoids] could slow that process,\u201d says Lamport.<\/p>\n

Orange juice is rich in vitamin C and folate (Credit: Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Other explanations for OJ\u2019s superpowers could relate to its ability to influence the gut microbiome \u2013 the bustling community of bacteria, viruses and yeasts that inhabit the small and large intestines.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For instance in\u00a0one study, 12 overweight women drank 500ml of orange juice every day for four weeks. At the end of the trial period, the women had significantly lower blood pressure. Although the composition of the gut microbiome itself did not change, the bacteria upped their production of chemicals known as short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) \u2013 which are known to reduce inflammation.<\/p>\n

Which orange juice is best?\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

However, both nutritionists the BBC spoke to were keen to emphasise that whole fruit remains the preferred option and the healthier choice. Not only do oranges contain more fibre, but they also retain more flavonoids that are so beneficial for health. Polyphenols are the wider class of plant compounds to which flavonoids belong.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you eat a fresh orange, the vitamin C and some of the more oxygen-sensitive nutrients [such as flavonoids] don\u2019t oxidise as much because they\u2019re still encapsulated within the fibre,\u201d says Amati. \u201cWhereas when you juice an orange, you destroy the food matrix and those nutrients become exposed to the air, and so they oxidise, which reduces their potency.\u201d<\/p>\n

As fibre is so hard to digest, it also helps to carry polyphenols and flavonoids all the way to the colon where they can be feasted on by beneficial microbes, enhancing their benefits.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, if juice is your preferred choice, then freshly squeezed oranges at home or in a restaurant will retain more health benefits than commercially available juice, as more fibre will remain. Industrially produced orange juice, on the other hand, will have been pasteurised and heated \u2013 which could kill off some of the more oxygen-sensitive nutrients,\u00a0such as vitamin C.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, for people who love an ice cold glass of OJ for breakfast, there is no need to feel guilty.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think for everyday life, I would say that a small glass of orange juice \u2013 as long as it\u2019s 100% orange juice and there\u2019s no other sweeteners or sugar added \u2013 you\u2019d be fine to have three or four times a week,\u201d says Amati.\u00a0<\/p>\n

* This article has been updated to correct an error that stated nitric acid helped blood vessels releax. This should have read nictic oxide.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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