Big Beautiful Citrus Season

Happy New Year and welcome to peak citrus fruit season! In addition to being a popular football tradition, did you know the New Year’s Day Orange Bowl tradition was originally designed to advertise the peak harvest of Florida navel oranges?

Here are a few other citrus fruit stats you may not know.

One single orange is a powerhouse of nutrients – packing ¾ of your daily vitamin C. A fresh, whole orange also contains vitamins A, B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B9, vitamin E, potassium, magnesium, phosphorus, and trace amounts of iron, zinc, copper and manganese. On top of all of that, oranges contain fiber and an important flavonoid, hesperidin, which improves insulin sensitivity and has anti-inflammatory effects.

Citrus fruits are not as delicate as berries and bananas, which makes them a great portable fruit for travel, camping, backpacking, skiing and other activities.

You can find more resources and data about the healthy aspects of oranges here: https://www.floridacitrus.org/health-nutrition/orange-juice/

It’s important to know your orange juice too! The best choices are fortified orange juice, so that you get a boost of calcium along with your Vitamin C!

Grab a healthy snack this month while oranges are at their peak! For those of you participating in the January steps challenge, remember to track your steps and send back a picture of your calendar to karen@rmfpleadville.com at the end of the month. Prize winners will be announced in February.

USDA food and nutrition guidelines were release last week.

To read a more detailed assessment of the guidelines, and understand my practice position related to them, please check out my BLOG here:

https://foodsciencebykc.com/take-a-breath-usda-dietary-guidelines/

Karen Casey, MS, RDN