Orange is the new diet

Fruit juice has effectively been discounted as a health food by now – the high sugar content offsets any health benefits. But the Sicilian blood orange, particularly the Moro and Tarocco varieties (the latter of which has the highest vitamin C concentration in the world) , is unique in that the juice actually helps prevent obesity and fatty liver.

This is thanks to the high concentration of a chemical called anthocyanins which is usually found in superfoods such as blueberries, acting as an antioxidant.

But it doesn’t work with just any blood orange. The unique microclimate of the area around Catania, Sicily, means that anthocyanin levels are much higher in oranges grown here. In fact, they’ve been regarded as a valuable health food in Italy for decades now, and Italian scientists are investigating whether the benefits extend to cancer prevention.

But Sicily’s monopoly could soon be ending, as the same scientists have teamed up with researchers in the UK to engineer the Ruby gene into blond oranges, which means that all citrus could soon have the same effect as the vermillion spheres found in Sicily.