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Hesperidin: The Amazing Flavonoid in Orange Juice
Hesperidin's Amazing Benefits
I am very fortunate to have many fruit trees on my property. I have several varieties of orange trees and I am constantly trying to find ways to use the oranges, but never did I realize how powerful oranges and their juice can actually be.
Orange juice contains special compounds that have a lot of health benefits. Hesperidin is abundant in oranges and is a phytonutrient (a naturally occurring plant compound). Orange juice has been reported to contain between 30mg and 130mg of hesperidin on average in an 8-ounce serving.
Joel Greene, author and educator from The Immunity Code, says that "Fresh squeezed orange juice contains a flavonoid called hesperidin. Hesperidin helps to raise blood levels of key phenols (the color pigments in orange juice). These special phenols lower inflammation, reduce DNA damage, improve your cholesterol, and do many other beneficial things like helping improve memory. Not only that, hesperidin is one of the most powerful natural defenses to fight highly virulent viruses like H1N1 and COVID-19. It suppresses numerous mechanisms needed for these types of viruses to proliferate. [1] Experiments comparing hesperidin to whole orange juice have shown administering hesperidin alone does not raise blood serum levels of phenols the way whole orange juice does."
I always thought that orange juice was full of sugar and bad for you, but that is the old way of thinking. Over and over in this work, I have seen people demonize foods. This includes everything from wheat, fruits, dairy, coconut oil, eggs, and butter - only to find out that it's not the food! It's what we've done to these foods and to our guts that are stripped of the bacteria needed to digest them. The amazing thing is orange juice can help repair our guts. Many times I've seen people whose guts are so inflamed they can't handle any fiber. When it gets this bad, you must heal the gut lining before it can handle the fibers that feed our microbes. Drinking orange juice reduces oxidative stress by 75% and helps the gut heal, especially if you are in a fasting state or juice fast.
Heart Health and Blood Pressure
Hesperidin is an incredible compound found in citrus fruit and especially oranges. In a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, participants received two cups a day of control drink, OJ, (a natural hesperidin content) or EOJ (hesperidin-enriched OJ ) for 12 weeks. Results: Hesperidin in OJ reduced systolic blood pressure and pulse after a single dose and also after sustained consumption. It also decreased homocysteine levels at 12 weeks versus the control drink. [2,3,4]
Helps Prevent Viruses From
Getting a Foothold
There is new research saying that hesperidin may help prevent COVID-19 from gaining a foothold in the body. It does this by inhibiting PLpro, an enzyme that it needs to replicate. It may also stop the (S) protein of SARS-CoV-2 which is the docking mechanism. It plays a key role in the receptor recognition and cell membrane fusion process. Hesperidin may also inhibit RDRP which is the enzyme and central component of coronaviral replication.[1]
On a personal note, I was exposed to the new Omicron variant of COVID-19 and while everyone I was around got it, I did not, along with my daughter. We both have been consuming a lot of orange juice in our morning kefir smoothies along with human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) which also help build up the good bacteria Bifido. HMOs (prebiotics) also have research that says they help the body to resist this virus.[5] HMOs prevent the colonization of viral pathogens.[6]The severity of this virus is dependent, in part, on the pathogen’s ability to adhere to epithelial surfaces. HMOs share the same structure with epithelial cells and they serve as soluble decoy receptors to prevent early cellular attachment. HMOs are baby's first food to feed the all-important Bifido bacteria. It protects their immune system from a myriad of viruses and diseases, and it can help you too.
Check out more about HMOs Click here
The Immune System and Vitamin C
I have learned a lot about my immune system's response to stress be it a virus, allergy symptoms, or emotional or physical stress. My research in this area is ongoing and has me constantly amazed at how our bodies talk and communicate with us. When my adrenal glands are overworked and exhausted by the stress of life, I've discovered ways to support them and then I begin to heal. One thing I have learned is how vitamin C trains our immune system to function properly. Vitamins B and C are both water soluble which means they dissolve in water, and these vitamins and nutrients dissolve quickly in the body. Unlike fat-soluble vitamins, water-soluble vitamins are carried to the body’s tissues, but the body cannot store them. When you're under stress and your body is reacting to an allergy, your adrenals will use up these vitamins quickly and cry for more! You need vitamin C and lots of it throughout the day when you're struggling with any kind of stress. Not just any kind of vitamin C, but whole foods that have lots of vitamin C. If you supplement with vitamin C tablets and don't take it in a natural form, it can be hard on the kidneys, so I caution against this. One of the ways to accomplish this is to have a glass of orange juice which is high in vitamin C. Kefir has vitamin C as well as B vitamins which are also nutrients needed by your adrenals.
Cognitive Functions
Flavonoids in orange juice can cross the blood-brain barrier that the body uses to protect the brain from harmful or damaging agents. The flavonoids hesperidin and naringenin can be found in citrus, specifically, and may help maintain cell health in brain tissue as they appear to cross the blood-brain barrier to the greatest extent.[7,8] These powerful flavonoids may help to reduce inflammation and maintain or improve blood flow to the brain which could have positive effects on cognition. [9]
A clinical study in healthy older adults reported that adults who consumed 100% orange juice scored better on combined tests for global cognitive function compared to the control group. Another study done on Norwegian adults found an improvement on DSST tests (which measure processing speed, attention, switching, and other cognitive functions).
OJ In Stores Is Not Real!
Don’t use canned or store-bought orange juice because it’s not the same thing. The manufacturers squeeze the juice from the oranges and store it in big vats, and then they start to remove the oxygen because this allows the liquid to keep for up to a year without spoiling. This also takes out the flavor of the oranges, so in order for it to taste like orange juice again, they hire flavor and fragrance companies to make flavor packs to make it taste like orange juice again. The flavor packs aren't listed in the ingredients because they're technically derived from "orange essence and oil." My husband could never drink orange juice because it always gave him terrible indigestion. That was until we got our own orange tree and, lo and behold, freshly squeezed OJ doesn't bother him at all. That's because it's the real deal and the stuff in stores isn't.
Check out My recipe
Orange Juice Kefir Smoothie
Ingredients
- 1 cup orange juice - fresh squeezed
- ½ cup kefir
- 1 scoop collagen - vanilla
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- ½ cup ice
Every ingredient with a link was selected by me to make it easier for you. I may receive a small affiliate commission if you buy something through my links. Thank you! ❤️
Instructions
- Place all ingredients in a high-speed blender and process until combined and frothy. Drink immediately.
References:
- Hesperidin and SARS-CoV-2: New Light on the Healthy Function of Citrus Fruits (Click to download PDF)
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32661681/
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34014143/
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28065188/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7890562/#R51
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7890562/
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22107709/
- https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0098299717301115?via%3Dihub
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16794461/
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28091350/
Listen To My Podcast
Orange juice contains special compounds that have a lot of health benefits. Hesperidin is abundant in oranges and is a phytonutrient (a naturally occurring plant compound). I always thought that orange juice was full of sugar and bad for you, but that is the old way of thinking. Over and over in this work, I have seen people demonize foods - only to find out that it's not the food! It's what we've done to these foods and to our guts that are stripped of the bacteria needed to digest them. The amazing thing is orange juice can help repair our guts, lower blood pressure, help with cognitive functions, and much more. Check out this week's podcast for more.
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