A diet should always contain plenty of fruits and vegetables for optimum health. What is more, bright colored fruits and vegetables should be one of your first options.  In fact, orange fruits and vegetables have a plethora of vitamins and minerals. Additionally, natural orange colored foods have an abundance of health benefits.

Overall Health Benefits

Orange fruits and vegetables have a large quantity of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, fiber and phytonutrients that may prevent disease and help keep your body stay healthy. The benefits are abundant including healthy skin, heart and eyes plus protect against infection. In fact, recent studies show that orange fruits and vegetables may even lower the risk of cancer.

Orange colored fruits and vegetables contain rich amounts of vitamin C, vitamin A, beta-carotene, potassium, flavonoids and lycopene.  What is more, many orange fruits and vegetables have high vitamin A content, sometimes double and even triple the recommended daily value (DV).

Beta-carotene:  Orange foods are well known for their high beta carotene content. In fact, beta carotene is what gives the fruits and vegetables their nice bright color.  It has significant amounts of antioxidants which can prevent or slow oxidation damage to the body. The antioxidants are like “free radical foragers” that prevent and repair damage caused by free radicals. As well, the health benefits of beta carotene are vast. It is an immunity booster, helps prevent colds and the flu, protects skin from sun damage, lowers the risk of cancer, helps with bone and teeth formation, and may help with arthritis symptoms and heart disease.

Vitamin A: This important vitamin is a derivative of beta carotene. Vitamin A or retinol is needed for the immune system, is an antioxidant that counteracts free radicals, promotes good night vision, helps combat infections and may help prevent cancer and heart disease.  Vitamin A is also known to be good for the skin and may reduce dryness, help prevent psoriasis, acne and even wrinkles. Additionally, this amazing vitamin is said to be essential for the reproductive process for both males and females.

Vitamin C: All orange foods are rich in vitamin C, an antioxidant that has various health benefits such as stimulating collagen formation, rebuilding worn-out collagen in the skin, boosting the immune system and protecting against heart disease.

A Wide Variety of Orange Fruits and Vegetables

With the huge variety of orange fruits and vegetables, there really is no reason why you cannot add them to your diet every day. There are an abundant amount of orange fruits that are high in nutrients and flavor. Select from a variety of superfood orange fruits like apricots, cantaloupe, guava, kumquats, mangoes, oranges, peaches, papaya, persimmons, nectarines and tangerines.

There is also a wide array of orange vegetables that are quite tasty such as pumpkin, sweet potatoes, winter squash like butternut squash, carrots, yams, orange peppers and tomatoes.