Orange vs. Lemon — Nutrition Comparison and Health Impact

Vitamin C

Vitamin C is one of the most important nutrients found in citrus fruits, for which they are famous. Lemons and oranges have approximately the same amount of vitamin C, with orange’s vitamin C content only slightly higher. Both oranges and lemons contain more vitamin C in their zests or peels.

However, raw lemon juice is richer in vitamin C compared to orange juice.

Vitamin Comparison

Vitamin comparison score is based on the number of vitamins by which one or the other food is richer. The "coverage" charts below show how much of the daily needs can be covered by 300 grams of the food.

Orange

8

Lemon

1

Contains more Vitamin AVitamin A	+922.7%
Contains more Vitamin E Vitamin E	+20%
Contains more Vitamin B1Vitamin B1	+117.5%
Contains more Vitamin B2Vitamin B2	+100%
Contains more Vitamin B3Vitamin B3	+182%
Contains more Vitamin B5Vitamin B5	+31.6%
Contains more FolateFolate	+172.7%
Contains more CholineCholine	+64.7%

Contains more Vitamin B6Vitamin B6

+33.3%

~equal in Vitamin C ~53mg

~equal in Vitamin D ~0µg

~equal in Vitamin B12 ~0µg

~equal in Vitamin K ~0µg

Antioxidant Effects

Reactive oxygen species are the chemicals often involved in heart disease. These are chemically reactive compounds that can be toxic to cells, damaging macromolecules such as lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids. Phenolic compounds found in citrus fruits can directly absorb and neutralize these chemicals and inhibit enzymes associated with this pathogenesis. Polyphenols can also enhance natural human antioxidants (5).

Cardioprotective Effecfts

Many studies have shown foods high in flavonoids to lower blood cholesterol and triglyceride levels. Lemons, in particular, have been shown to reduce low-density lipoproteins, commonly referred to as “bad cholesterol,” and increase high-density lipoproteins, often called “good cholesterol” (6).

Flavonoids can also prevent hyperglycemia by increasing the formation of glycogen molecules from glucose and inhibiting the synthesis of glucose in the liver (5)․

Atherosclerosis is the leading cause of heart disease and stroke. Naringenin and hesperetin are flavonoids that also possess antiatherogenic abilities by promoting fatty acid breakdown. Oranges contain comparatively high levels of naringenin, whereas lemons are rich in hesperetin (7).

Antihypertensive Effects

People with high blood pressure are advised to decrease their sodium intake. Luckily oranges do not contain sodium, and lemons are low in this mineral.

A study has shown that high flavonoid juice consumption can reduce diastolic blood pressure due to flavonoids such as naringin and narirutin (8).

Intake of lemon has also been proven to have an inverse association with systolic blood pressure (9).

Cerebrovascular Protection

One research has concluded that citrus consumption reduces the risk of cerebrovascular diseases, such as ischemic stroke and intracerebral hemorrhage (10).

Glucose and Insulin Response

Studies in experimental diabetes models demonstrate the efficacy of citrus flavonoids to improve glucose tolerance, increase insulin secretion and sensitivity, decrease insulin resistance, reduce hepatic glucose production and intestinal glucose absorption, enhance peripheral glucose uptake, suppress inflammation, and modulate the activity of enzymes and transporters involved in glucose and lipid metabolism (11). The flavonoids with strong antidiabetic activities are hesperidin, naringin, and nobiletin (5)

Consuming lemon or lemon juice along with bread or other starchy foods has been proven to reduce the impact of glycemic response through premature inhibition of the α-amylase enzyme in the saliva that breaks down carbohydrates (12).

A study has also shown that 1000mg of vitamin C consumption a day leads to decreased levels of blood sugar, total cholesterol, triglycerides, low and high-density lipoproteins, as well as serum insulin (13).

Obesity

Citrus flavonoids modulate different signaling pathways involved in adiposity and fat cell differentiation and hence could be of significant value for the development of antiobesity agents (11).

Polyphenols found in citrus fruits can assist obesity management since they cause a reduction in fat cell differentiation, lipid content in the cell, and programmed death of fat cells. They can also potentially alleviate complications present in obesity by reducing cytokines, which are responsible for inflammatory processes (14).

Diabetic Nephropathy

Diabetic nephropathy is a severe complication due to diabetes mellitus type 2, which leads to end-stage renal disease. A study has concluded that red orange and lemon extract has the ability to prevent this complication, owing to the strong antioxidant qualities of anthocyanins (15).

Antiallergic Qualities

For allergic people who are not sensitive to citrus fruits, these fruits may serve as natural medicine. Flavonoids, naringenin, and hesperidin, which oranges and lemons are rich in, have been studied to reduce allergy symptoms and suppress inflammatory compounds (25).

Oral administration of aqueous extracts of citrus fruit peels has also been studied to demonstrate antiallergic and anti-inflammatory qualities (26).