Benefits of eating citrus fruit
You Are What You Eat
You are what you eat and drink.
In the e-Alert “Orange Express” (12/17/03) I told you about Australian research that examined the results of almost 50 different studies of citrus fruits. Among the collected data, researchers determined that those with the highest intake of citrus fruits reduced their risk of stomach, mouth, esophageal, and larynx cancers by as much as 40 to 50 percent.
In response to that e-Alert I received an e-mail from an HSI member named Joan who had this to say:
“My parents who lived on the ocean in Florida drank Florida orange juice, by the big glassful, for twenty years. My mother died from lung cancer, my dad from liver cancer. It seems to me that the best answer to whether or not it will do you any lasting good is to find your blood-type and check out the book Live for Your Type. Because in that, for certain ‘types,’ it’s not recommended.”
Joan makes a good point: Foods that are healthy for one person may not be healthy for another. And in addition to the blood-type theory there’s also the genetic type theory, both of which are intended to tailor nutrition choices to whatever type you may be. And I think we’ll be hearing more and more about these theories in the next few years, especially as more detailed reports are filed from the Human Genome Project.
But I need to single out one important detail in Joan’s e-mail. She says that her parents both drank a lot of orange juice. But the e-Alert didn’t discuss drinking orange juice, which is not at all the same as eating oranges. Unlike orange juice, the fruit of an orange is high in unrefined, water-soluble fiber; a factor that makes it a very different (and healthier) food than orange juice.
I’m certainly not going to dismiss orange juice as “bad for you,” but the Australian research that found citrus fruit intake to have so many health benefits didn’t include a review of fruit juice studies.
So drink orange juice if you enjoy it. But remember that you could be missing out on the cancer-fighting benefits that may be available if you eat your orange instead of drinking it.
To Your Good Health,
Jenny Thompson
Health Sciences Institute
