A New Twist on Orange Juice

February 25, 2017

Good morning, sleepy heads!! (Ok, honestly, I have no idea how tired you are – but with the pace life seems to move, it’s probably a fair guess. That, and it’s early for me as I’m typing this.)

Today I decided to do my juice a little differently.

Most people buy their orange juice from the store. Have you ever had fresh squeezed orange juice? Oh so yum! But when you juice a fruit, you leave out so much! You’re getting mostly water and natural sugars with some vitamins – but you lose the fiber and some of the great phytochemicals with it.

So today, rather than juice my oranges, I just blended them! Leave on some of the white pithy parts – it’s good cancer-fighting fiber – and get all the lovely pulp blended up nice and smooth. It’s actually almost a creamy juice with all of that. (*Note: the pith can be bitter, so experiment with how much you can leave on. You may want to start low and gradually leave more and more in your blend as you acquire a taste for it)

And to chill it, you can either pour it over ice, add ice and make it more of a slushy, or – my fun twist for the day – I used frozen mango. So simple, so good, so healthy.

Oranges are extremely rich in that wonderful antioxidant, vitamin C, packing over 100% of the RDA recommendations in one fruit. Another component in oranges, the molecule herperidin, is now being studied for its ability to help lower blood pressure and cholesterol, as well as work as an anti-inflammatory agent. But herperidin is found more in that white pith and the peel, so try to keep what you can of that white goodness.

Mango has a lovely beauty combo: vitamin A and vitamin C, good for skin, tissue health, and bone health. And the beta carotene is also great for healthy vision. Plus the extra 3g of fiber in mangoes doesn’t hurt, either!