Orange

food source · 1

• →Vitamin C

  One medium orange supplies close to an adult's vitamin C for a day. Eaten whole, with its fiber intact, it does not pour sugar in all at once the way juice does.

  GUIDE · moderateGUIDE · high
  Mechanism · 2

  Mechanism · Two jobs of vitamin C

  The enzymes that build collagen need vitamin C to keep working; without it, collagen fibers cannot be twisted tight, which is where the bleeding gums and slow-healing wounds of scurvy come from. In the gut, vitamin C also converts the hard-to-absorb ferric iron in plants into the easier-to-absorb ferrous form, but only when it is eaten in the same meal as the iron-containing food.

  Numbers · Who holds the vitamin C crown

  Raw orange has about 53 mg of vitamin C per 100 g, and one medium orange comes close to a day's amount. By weight, raw red bell pepper has 2.4 times as much and green kiwi 1.7 times, so the title of vitamin C champion almost always falls to a single food table. Cut fruit left standing loses some of its vitamin C, and juicing throws away the fiber.

  GUIDE · moderateGUIDE · high