Military to Civilian Fitness

Today’s tasty topic is oranges. I’d forgotten how good these were until I ate a salad with mandarin oranges in it. I’ve always loved oranges, and I decided to share what information I found about oranges with you! I’ve also started taking a nutrition class for college, so hopefully that will help make my posts a little more informed! Anyways, here’s what I found out about oranges.

Oranges are an excellent source of Vitamin C. One orange has 116% of the DRA. I always thought that DRA stood for “Daily Recommended Amount”, but my nutrition class taught me otherwise. Turns out the “D” stands for “Dietary”, not “Daily”. Good to know! Another thing I learned in my nutrition class is that you can overdose on nutrients. Eating 2 oranges a day, over a long period of time, is actually bad for you! With as much Vitamin C as oranges have, you actually want to keep it down to about one every other day. I’m learning so much, and I’ve only had 2 weeks of that class!

I also found out that oranges have Calcium. I actually thought calcium was exclusive to dairy products, and if anything else had it, then it wasn’t even worth mentioning (unless you count those cereals where they stuff them with nutrients in an unnatural way!). Oranges contain about 52 mg per serving, which is 5% of the DRA. That’s pretty average (as far as non-dairy items go) with calcium content. They also contain a powerful antioxidant, Beta-carotene, which prevents cellular damage. I couldn’t find out just how much oranges have of this. But I do know how much Dietary Fiber is inside an orange! about 3.1 g, which is about 12% of the Dietary Recommended Amount. That is an excellent amount of Fiber! In case you don’t know already, Fiber greatly assists the digestion process and helps clean out your colon.What a versatile fruit!

Oranges have a lot more nutrients in them, but I don’t want to cover them all. There are too many! Just take my word for it and know that oranges are nutrient-dense, or you can look them up yourself if you are that interested. I know I was! Anyways, if you make oranges an important part of your diet, eating about one every other day, then you will see your health improve. Happy peeling!

Alyssa Staheli is a life-long learner and a health and fitness expert. She loves to write and share her knowledge with others. This is because she believes that “knowledge is power” and that with the right information, one can achieve optimum health. She recommends treadmillreviews.com for the best reviews of treadmills. You can find Alyssa on Google+.