Which is better apple or orange juice

Apple vs Orange — Health impact and Nutrition Comparison

Introduction

The well known idiom, comparing apples and oranges, is used when two items being compared are so different that the comparison is not sensible. In this article, we are going against the English language of idioms and doing exactly that.

Apples and oranges are two of the most widely consumed fruits in the world. Here, we will talk about the apparent and not so apparent differences, as well as find some similarities, with our main focus being on nutritional compositions and impacts on health.

Classification

Apples and oranges are both fruits that grow on flowering trees. Apple or Malus domestica belongs to the Malus genus and the Rosacae family, while orange is a hybrid between pomelo and mandarin, belonging to the Citrus genus and the Rutaceae family.

Appearance

Apples and oranges have their apparent spherical shapes in common.

Most apples are seeded, while oranges tend not to be. Depending on the variety, apples come in various colours, such as red, yellow, green, pink or multicoloured.

Both oranges and apples can greatly vary in size.

Taste and Use

Different varieties of orange can taste not only sweet, but also sour or bitter, due to various levels of sugars and acids.

While some apples are sour, most tend to be sweet.

Both apples and oranges are used in the production of numerous sweets, beverages and pastries.

Growing Conditions

Apple and orange trees both prefer to grow in full sun, but can tolerate partial shade. Apples prefer a slightly acidic to neutral soil, with the pH ranging from 6.0 to 7.0, while oranges can also grow in more basic soils with the pH falling in the range of 6.5 to 7.5.

Varieties

Apples and oranges, being two of the most widely cultivated fruits in the world and each with a rich history that goes back many centuries, have thousands of varieties. These varieties differ from each other by their colour, size, taste, as well certain nutritional properties.

Different varieties of apples can be cultivated for distinct purposes. Based on this, apples can be grouped into three types — dessert apples, cooking apples and cider apples.

Oranges can be seeded or seedless. Seedless oranges are more popular in modern farming.

Some of the most commonly cultivated varieties of apples are Red Delicious and Golden Delicious, Granny Smith, Honeycrisp, Gala and Fuji.

Valencia, Navel, acidless and blood oranges are in turn, some of the most popular cultivars of oranges.

Nutrition

The nutritional values used in this article are for raw oranges of all commercial varieties and raw apples with skin.

Macronutrients and Calories

Oranges and apples are quite similar in their overall macronutrient compositions, however, apples are a little more dense in nutrients. Apples are composed of 85.6% water, while oranges contain 86.8% of it.

The average serving sizes of oranges and apples are nearly the same. The serving size of an orange is one fruit, weighing 131g, while one average serving size of an apple is one cup of chopped fruit that weighs 125g.

Calories

Apples and oranges are both low calorie foods. Apples are only a little higher in calories containing 52 per a 100g serving, whilst the same serving size of oranges contains 47 calories.

Protein and Fats

Overall, both of these fruits are very low in both proteins and fats.

Oranges are richer in proteins compared to apples, containing higher levels of all essential amino acids.

Apples are a little higher in fats, due to a larger content of polyunsaturated fatty acids. Oranges contain more saturated and monounsaturated fats.

Carbohydrates

A 100g serving size of apples contains 2g more of carbohydrates when compared to the same serving size of oranges. However, apples and oranges contain the same amount of dietary fiber.

Apples are higher in sugars and can also contain a small amount of starch. The main sugars found in apples are fructose, glucose and sucrose.

Vitamins

Oranges are significantly higher in almost all vitamins, including vitamin C, vitamin A and B complex vitamins.

Nevertheless, apples contain vitamin K, which oranges are completely absent in.

Apples and oranges contain the same amount of vitamin E. Both completely lack vitamin D and vitamin B12.

Minerals

Oranges also win in this category, being higher in calcium, potassium, magnesium, copper, zinc, phosphorus, selenium and choline.

Apples, on the other hand, contain larger amounts of iron and manganese. Apples are also higher in sodium.

Glycemic Index

According to The International Tables of Glycemic Index Values, the glycemic index of apples, based on the mean of five studies, falls in the range of 36±3 (1).

Naturally, depending on the variety and growing conditions of the fruit, its glycemic index can significantly vary. You can read our in-depth article on Apple glycemic index to get more information about the glycemic values of different varieties of apples.

The glycemic index of oranges, based on the mean of five studies, is equal to 45±5 (1).

As we can see, oranges tend to have a higher glycemic index compared to apples. However, the glycemic indices of both oranges and apples fall in the low category.

If you’d like to compare the glycemic indices of apples and oranges with other foods, you can have a look at our Complete glycemic index chart with over 300 foods.

Acidity

Depending on the variety, the pH value of apples can range from 3.2 to 4 (2). This acidic nature is caused by a compound found in apples called malic acid. The acidity of apples decreases as they mature.

Oranges have a similar acidity, with the pH value falling in the range of 3.0 to 4.2 (2). While oranges also contain malic acid, the changes of the acidity levels in different varieties of the fruit are mostly due to the citric acid content (3).

The potential renal acid load or PRAL is another tool for measuring acidity. The PRAL value demonstrates how much acid or base is produced by the breakdown of the certain food.

The PRAL values for apples and oranges are -1.9 and -3.6 respectively. This demonstrates that oranges produce more acids in the organism compared to apples.

Weight Loss & Diets

Apples and oranges, like most fruits, are low in calories and fit well in most weight loss diets. Between the two, oranges are the preferred choice for low calorie, low fat and low carb diets.

Various studies have demonstrated weight management benefits of including more fruits in healthy diets. Apples and oranges are no exceptions.

The low energy-density and the high fiber of apples content has been studied to make them effective in weight reduction diets (4). Consumption of apples has been proven to be associated with a better diet quality and a reduced risk of obesity in children (5).

As for oranges, a flavonoid compound found in these fruits, called nobiletin has been researched to reduce obesity and protect from complications of metabolic syndrome in experimental animals (6).

Together with a reduced-calorie diet, orange juice has also been shown to lead to weight loss and improved obesity related biomarkers (7).

Health Impact

If an apple a day keeps the doctor away, what does an orange a day do? In this section, we will compare how the two fruits affect different aspects of health.

Health Benefits

Cardiovascular Health

Apple and apple product consumption has been demonstrated to have an inverse association with cardiovascular disease and coronary mortality. These cardioprotective effects are said to be mostly due to the dietary antioxidants found in apples (4).

While there are not many studies about the association of orange fruits and cardiovascular health, there is enough research about orange juice to conclude what effects the fruit might have.

Orange juice consumption has been researched to improve cardiovascular risk factors by lowering glucose levels, insulin resistance, as well as levels of total cholesterol and low density cholesterol (8).

Studies have also found orange juice to have the potential of significantly decreasing systolic blood pressure and pulse pressure (9, 10).

Diabetes

Unsurprisingly, research has shown that adding one serving of apples to a diet has been associated with a significant reduction of the risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus (11).

While orange consumption can also play a role in the prevention of diabetes, it has not been found to be as significant as apple consumption (12, 13).

Cancer

High fruit consumption has been researched to lead to a decreased risk of several cancers, such as mouth, pharynx, larynx, esophagus, stomach and lung, as well as colon, pancreas and prostate (14).

The National Cancer Institute advises to put a special emphasis on oranges and dark greens to help prevent cancer (14).

Various studies have also found that daily apple consumption can significantly decrease the risk of oral cavity, pharynx, esophagus, larynx, lung, colorectal, breast, ovary and prostate cancers (4).

Other Benefits

A diet high in fruits, and especially apples, can also help against diseases such as cataracts, Alzheimer’s and bronchial asthma (12).

Downsides and Risks

Oranges and Medication

Some citrus fruits contain a compound called furanocoumarins that can negatively interact with medications used for high blood pressure, high cholesterol and depression by inhibiting the enzyme that metabolises those drugs.

Sweet oranges are free of this risk as they do not contain this compound, however, Seville oranges or bitter oranges can produce this unfavourable interaction (15).

Apple Seed Toxicity

Apple seeds are rich in nutrients, such as protein, fiber and oils. However, they also contain some levels of toxigenic amygdalin.

Studies have shown that such a low level of amygdalin not only doesn’t negatively impact health but also does not inhibit the beneficial effects that apple seeds may possess (16).

Summary

In summary, apples are higher in calories and sugars, while oranges contain more protein. Oranges are also richer in most vitamins and minerals, except for vitamin K and iron.

Apples have a lower glycemic index and can significantly reduce the risk of diabetes. Oranges may be the preferred choice to decrease the risk of cancer.

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How fruit juice went from health food to junk food

‘Fruit juice isn’t the same as intact fruit and it has as much sugar as many classical sugar drinks,’ says medical researcher Susan Jebb. Photograph: Deborah Pendell/Getty Images/Flickr Open

‘Fruit juice isn’t the same as intact fruit and it has as much sugar as many classical sugar drinks,’ says medical researcher Susan Jebb. Photograph: Deborah Pendell/Getty Images/Flickr Open

T his week, it looked as if fruit juice might finally lose its claim to healthiness and be put into the same category as fizzy drinks. It emerged that a headteacher, Elizabeth Chaplin, who runs Valence primary school in Dagenham, wrote to parents about a new rule to confiscate juice cartons from children’s lunch boxes. Instead, pupils would only be allowed to drink water.

Days earlier, Susan Jebb, a government advisor and head of the diet and obesity research group at the Medical Research Council’s Human Nutrition Research unit at Cambridge University, told the Sunday Times that the government’s official advice that a glass counts towards your recommended minimum five-a-day servings of fruit and vegetables should be changed.

«Fruit juice isn’t the same as intact fruit and it has as much sugar as many classical sugar drinks,» said Jebb, who has stopped drinking juice. «It is also absorbed very fast, so by the time it gets to your stomach your body doesn’t know whether it’s Coca-Cola or orange juice, frankly. I have to say it is a relatively easy thing to give up. Swap it and have a piece of real fruit. If you are going to drink it, you should dilute it.»

This comes on top of a year or so of stories about the high sugar content of fruit juice. The same US scientists who warned about the use of high-fructose corn syrup in fizzy drinks have now turned their attention to juice. «Fruit juice and smoothies are the new danger,» Barry Popkin, professor of nutrition at the University of North Carolina, told the Guardian in September. Work by Dr Robert Lustig – whose book Fat Chance: the Bitter Truth about Sugar received much attention last year – and studies such as one published in the British Medical Journal in the summer, which found fruit juice is associated with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes, are starting to make people realise that fruit juice may not be as wholesome as they once believed.

So why is fruit juice still being pushed as a healthy option? «You can’t trust government health advice,» says Joanna Blythman, author of What to Eat. «They have the same advice that they’ve been recycling for 50 years and rarely change it. It’s embarrassing to admit they’ve made a mistake.»

Does she drink juice? «I don’t, really – not in any great quantity,» she says. At one point, she says, in the late 1980s and early 90s, she was «a very enthusiastic orange juicer. I remember coming back from the States, where everyone juices like mad, and I got a juicer. Then over the last couple of years there has been more and more evidence that sweet juices are basically just fructose, and have a similar effect on the body to fizzy and soft drinks in terms of sugar.»

The juice industry has long enjoyed a healthy image. Anything to do with fruit, says Blythman, «has always been used to put a halo of health around dubious products that don’t merit it. That’s business as usual for the food industry.»

For all their reliance on phrases such as «100% pure» and «pure squeezed», many of the big commercial orange juice manufacturers make a processed product, as detailed by Alissa Hamilton in her 2009 book Squeezed: What You Don’t Know about Orange Juice.

In the early 20th century, juice was mainly sold in cans. During the second world war, the US government commissioned scientists to develop a product that would supply vitamin C to soldiers overseas. «That’s when research into developing a frozen concentrate that people would actually like started,» says Hamilton. Until then, it had been fairly tasteless – the concentrating process removed the water, but also the natural chemicals that gave orange juice its taste. «They started adding fresh juice to the concentrate and that made it taste good. The discovery was too late for the war, but after the war that’s when orange juice started to become really popular.»

One primary school in Dagenham is to start confiscating fruit juices from children’s lunch boxes. Photograph: Kidstock/Getty Images/Blend Images

However, as the market grew, it was becoming too expensive to use fresh juice to add flavour back to concentrate. «They developed the technology around the 1960s to capture and break down the essences and oils that were lost when the juice was concentrated, and came up with these things called flavour packs.»

Producers of pasteurised orange juice began storing their juice in vast tanks. In order to keep it «fresh», the product had to be stripped of oxygen. Once this had been done, the juice could be stored for up to a year. The only problem was that this process also removed much of the taste. «You need flavour packs to make it taste like anything we know as orange juice,» says Hamilton.

So, does she still drink juice? «I actually never did,» she says. «I try to eat the whole thing. If I have an orange, I don’t even stop at the fruit – I eat the pith, the peel. Juicing anything would not be my choice.»

For most of us it is, though, and it is not obvious that any of the sugar scare stories are affecting the fruit juice market yet. In its latest report, the research company Mintel found that 83% of people drink fruit juice, a juice drink or smoothie at least once a week. It also estimates that the market will grow by 13% by 2018. It found 34% of consumers were concerned about the amount of sugar, but «a striking 76%» believed juice and smoothies to be healthy.

As part of its end-of-year «top products» survey, the retail trade journal the Grocer found a mixed picture for juice brands. The leading brand, Tropicana, experienced a downturn in sales of 5.4% throughout 2013, though sales of Innocent smoothies, owned by Coca-Cola, were up more than 7%. However, Innocent was one of the brands highlighted last year as containing high levels of sugar: a 250ml serving of its pomegranate, blueberry and acai smoothie contains 34g of sugar, around the same as a 330ml can of Coke.

«I think the current coverage about fruit juice and sugar will have an influence on consumers,» says Heidi Lanschützer, food and drink research analyst at Mintel. «The question is whether it’s a short- or long-term impact.» She says this will depend on how ongoing the coverage is, and whether more schools ban juice, though the biggest impact will be if the government takes Susan Jebb’s advice and removes it from the five-a-day list. This, she says,»is one of the market’s biggest selling points – if the market is not allowed to use that any more, that will definitely have an impact.»

Not everybody is racing to demonise juice just yet. «It’s about portion size. 150ml of fruit juice is perfectly acceptable as one of your five-a-day,» says Azmina Govindji, dietitian and spokesperson for the British Dietetic Association. «But we would suggest you have it with a meal so it doesn’t make your blood sugar go up too quickly. I think the difficulty comes when people think of fruit juice as being a really healthy drink and having half a pint, or having it throughout the day, or where children are being brought up on large amounts.

«The key message is that small amounts – a 150ml glass is quite small – as part of a healthy varied diet is fine. You get fluid and vitamin C but you need to be aware that it does contain sugar. If you can, always choose fresh fruit and veg [over juice]. You’re going to get fibre, more nutrients and you’re likely to have fewer calories.»

Does she think the advice on juice being part of the five-a-day will change? «I think what needs to change is advice on portion size.»

Blythman, meanwhile, understands that the mixed messages about juice are perplexing for consumers. «People are thoroughly confused,» she says. «But I think [growing awareness of sugar levels] will have an effect. The simplest way to put it is: eat whole fruit, don’t drink juice.»

The rise and fall of our favourite foods – what’s in:

Halloumi: Britons have become the biggest European consumers of the rubbery, squeaky white cheese outside of Cyprus. Tesco’s halloumi sales rose by 35% during 2011 and 2012, while Waitrose reported a 104% increase. «I don’t think it was one event that explains halloumi’s popularity,» says Louis Constantinou, director of the Cypressa food company, founded by his uncles in the 1960s, which now supplies halloumi to supermarkets. «It got exposure by celebrity chefs. It’s a versatile product in the sense you can do lots with it – grill it, eat it as it is.»

Hummus: Waitrose claims to be the first supermarket to have stocked hummus, around 20 years ago. Now, says Jonathan Moore, the supermarket’s executive chef, they have around 19 varieties. «It has become a staple – people are using it on bread instead of butter.» One recent survey found 41% of Britons had a pot of hummus in their fridge, and the British taste for the chickpea paste, which originates in the Middle East, is worth around £60m a year.

Sweeter apples: Theresa Huxley, apple technologist for Sainsbury’s, says consumers are looking for sweeter apples. The supermarket is stocking a record 57 varieties of apple, including more British varieties than before. «Royal Gala remains our most popular variety, and that’s a very sweet one, but there are lots of new varieties that are becoming more and more popular: Jazz, which has a peardroppy flavour, and Rubens which has tones of melon, and Zari, which is a sweet, juicy apple.»

Bottled water: Environmentalists have long tried to wean us off our attachment to bottles of water, and for a while it looked like it might work – in 2009 sales fell by 9%. However, as a report for the Grocer put it last month, «all is forgotten». Last year we drank 8.7% more bottled water than in 2012.

Ceviche: The decreasing cost of international travel and the ability of a growing number of people to experience other cultures and cuisines, says Moore, have had a huge influence on our national palate. Middle Eastern influence has been strong, thanks to chefs such as Yotam Ottolenghi, but Moore is also looking at food inspired by South America, especially ceviche – raw fish cured with citrus juices. «Ceviche is, for me, the sushi of 20 years ago. Twenty years ago, would anyone have said sushi was going to be this big in the UK?»

And what’s out:

Meat: According to one survey published in November, a quarter of Britons are eating less meat, with a further 34% saying they would consider eating less. Just 2% reported eating more than they had previously. The survey was conducted for Eating Better, an alliance of groups including Friends of the Earth, launched in summer 2013 to encourage people to eat less meat. It attributed the results to the fallout from the horsemeat scandal, and growing awareness of the environmental impact of rearing animals for meat. Others blamed falling sales on rising costs – according to the Financial Times last month [http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b41bd746-61a3-11e3-916e-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2nnzEoiNl], British beef prices are at record highs, and sales of the most expensive cuts, such as roasting joints, are down by a quarter on the previous year.

Builders’ tea: «The mainstream tea category has lost its sparkle,» Neil Manders, Twinings’ commercial director, told the Grocer recently. In September, the trade journal published a report on the hot drinks market. It found that people are moving away from traditional tea and – if they are not drinking coffee instead – towards fruit and herbal varieties, and green tea (sales are up 15% and 19% respectively). In a more recent report, the Grocer found volume sales of tea were down 6.1% in 2013, a bigger decline on the previous year.

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