The balancing act of citrus fruits high in vitamin C

Citrus fruits pack a punch with loads of health benefits — and they can make you pucker with their sour to sweet flavors.

During the year we consume a lot of citrus fruits, whether it’s the orange juice we have with breakfast, the lemon we use to flavor our water or the slice of grapefruit we choke down half willingly (and sometimes cheat by adding a spoonful of sugar).

What is commonly known about citrus fruits such as oranges, lemons, limes and grapefruit is that they are high in vitamin C. 

But being so high in vitamin C also helps your body absorb other nutrients in the foods you eat. It ramps up your immune system as well. Grapefruit is especially high in vitamin C.

We sometimes have trouble finding grapefruit, especially in the winter. We go through several grapefruits every few days at our house, and are constantly hunting and gathering them from various markets. 

We do a quarter of a grapefruit in the morning, which helps keep our blood sugar from spiking by keeping our insulin level from rising.

We can see this through the glycemic score, which measures the blood sugar levels produced by foods. The lower the score, the more slowly the sugar is released; the higher the score, the more quickly the sugar is released into the bloodstream. 

Grapefruit has an extremely low glycemic index score. This means that the sugar is released very slowly into the bloodstream, which sustains a steady release of energy and prevents the sugar crash. Because of this, grapefruit stabilizes your blood sugar, which helps burn fat and suppress cravings.

Citrus fruits are also high in fiber and potassium. The potassium can regulate how much sodium is in your body. It will also filter out toxins. We put lemon juice into our water because it not only flavors the water, it also helps detox our systems.

Fruit juice often has a lot of sugar in it. A better way to get nutrients into your daily diet from citrus is to eat the whole fruit. By consuming it as a whole fruit you will get all its nutritious benefits, especially the fiber.

Molly and Rachel Aiudi are identical twin sisters who live in Winsted. Molly is a sophomore at Susquehanna University double majoring in creative writing and publishing and editing and was an intern at The Lakeville journal earlier this summer. Rachel is a sophomore at The University of Rochester and is double majoring in biology with a focus in nutrition and music. She is a distance runner for the school.