A large percentage of our population relies completely or in part on citrus juices for their supply of Vitamin C because these juices are said to contain large quantities of this vitamin.

Health benefits of citrus, having made a detailed and thorough study of the advantages and disadvantages of citrus juices, I feel compelled to warn my readers to stay away from citrus fruit juices, even those made in your own home with your own juicer. No, citrus juices are not the good, healthy, beneficial products that for years we thought they were. So delay no longer .... if you use citrus juices regularly in your diet, they must go or only be used occasionally.

I have no objection if people who live in the warmer climates have an orange or a grapefruit once in a while, or the juice, but I do warn that citrus in fairly consistent or large quantities can be a trouble-maker. Consequently, I would suggest that citrus only be used in small quantities or be avoided altogether.

If you eat oranges, do not eat dyed ones. All or most of the Florida oranges that are sold throughout the country are dyed and this dye is deadly and harmful. I have read of children dying as a result of eating this dye in oranges.

Bear in mind that much of the bioflavanoid value in oranges is concentrated in the white covering that is just under the outside skin. You want to get this value when you eat oranges but it could be dangerous to eat this portion of an orange that has been dyed and, as I mentioned above, most of the Florida oranges are dyed. So watch out!

I have long known that drinking copiously of citrus juices or eating lots of oranges could cause harm to or the loss of one's teeth. Professor Hilton Hotema told me this some years ago. He claimed that he lost his teeth by drinking a lot of citrus juices when he first moved to Florida. He thought citrus juices were wonderful and he enjoyed them so he drank of them copiously .... and lost his teeth! I have also run into other cases where this happened.

Melvin D. Page, D.D.S., who has made a lifetime study of nutrition, gives what is probably the most logical scientific reason for this action of citrus on the teeth. He states that about 10% of almost all fruit is sugar. Now even though this is the best kind of sugar, it can be used to excess. When this is done, it puts undue strain on the mechanism of the body that maintains the correct sugar level of the blood.

A study made by Edward C. Stafne, D.D.S., and Stanley A. Lovestedt, D.D.S., was published in the Proceedings of the Staff Meetings of the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, March 5, 1947. It was entitled, "Dissolution of Tooth Substance by Lemon Juice, etc." This was later republished in "The Journal of the American Dental Association" of May, 1947.

The two dental surgeons investigated the relationship between the consumption of lemon juice and the dental health of 50 patients, which consisted of 11 men and 39 women. These 50 patients all took lemon juice for a variety of reasons: some as a cure for rheumatism some for constipation, others to beat colds, a few as a means of weight reduction and some others as a tonic.

It was found that all of the 50 were suffering from varying degrees of decalcification, which means the calcium in their tooth enamel was cracking due to the erosive effect of the ascorbic acid in the lemon juice. The tragedy of this situation was that in many cases the lemon juice had been prescribed by professionals. Some of the victims had actually started drinking lemon juice because of advertisements in the newspapers.

In an experiment on rats conducted in Georgia, seven kinds of juice were used; tomato, orange, sweetened grapefruit, prune, pineapple, grape and apple. It was found that the sweetened grapefruit juice was the most erosive with 5 degrees of erosiveness, the apple and grape were second with 4 degrees of erosiveness, the orange had 3 degrees, the pineapple 2 degrees, and the prune and tomato had 1 degree.

In the second part of the experiment the animals were given the juices three times daily in measured amounts, along with other fluids, but this time only three kinds of juice were used — tomato, orange and grapefruit. The grapefruit juice was sweetened because the rats would not drink it otherwise. The result — the grapefruit juice caused 2 degrees of erosion, the orange juice one degree and the tomato juice caused no erosion whatsoever. It was judged that the orange juice and the grapefruit juice caused the most erosion because of the high content of citric acid in these juices.

From an article by Henry Hicks, D.D.S., written in the magazine, "Oral Surgery, Oral Medicine and Oral Pathology," for July, 1951, we read:

"My subject, one of the most confused and abused of the past two decades, has been of special interest to me for the past 15 years. Excessive citrus juice consumption and its effect on the superficial and deep tissues of the oral cavity has been overlooked by professional and lay groups alike because citrus fruit juice has been oversold to the public. It has become the standard, highly nationalized, and most advertised health food in America, its vitamin C factor a cure-all! Citrus fruit and vitamin C have become synonymous in the minds of most people. While we cannot deny that citrus fruit is one of the best sources rich in vitamin C and that vitamin C is essential for normal connective tissue and bones and for normal metabolism, we overlook the fact that other substances which are also present in citrus fruits may do more harm than the good that is derived from the vitamin C when taken in excess."

Back 25 years ago I came across many people who complained of a peculiar type of malady. In the case of males it was pruritus ani but in women, it could be both pruritus ani and pruritus vulvae. In the incidents that I knew about the problem was traced to the drinking of large quantities of citrus juices. Usually it was people who just loved grapefruit juice, but I am sure that the wide use of orange, lemon or lime juice could just as easily cause the problem.

If you like citrus fruits, eat them or drink their juices only now and then. I know some people who drink citrus juices like water and to this I strongly object.

Adam Brookover

Copyrighted material; do not reprint without permission.

 

View all articles by Adam Brookover