Plus one orange will give a feeling of fullness. A glass of juice contains 3+ oranges (lots of sugar) and a well - it's just a drink. I usually have a quarter of a glass if any but my preferred breakfast is to have half a pink grapefruit.
In the mid 90s I was keen on triathlons, ironman etc and decided to ring AIS one day to see if they could answer a question on hydration/energy/recovery.
Long story short, 2 year experiment later....
Absolute best recovery food/drink/substance bar none for improving hydration, muscle recovery/rebuilding etc etc - cut up whole oranges consumed within 30 minutes of exercise end. Any longer for delay and benefits reduced substantially.
This was compared with pretty much every available sports drink/supplement/gel/bar you name it. Tested across multiple conditions, temps, humidity, training/racing durations.
As with everything, quantity was also important. Too many oranges and the benefit decreased, too few and similar result.
Rule seemed to be 2 typical size oranges for activity lasting up to 75-90 minutes, 3 oranges for >90 minutes (whether 2 hours or 10 hours or 16 hours).
The most important component is the white strings/membranes on the segments NOT what is inside the segments so much. So people who pull off all the string (white) bits (if peeling the orange) - are removing the most important component. Best way to consume was to cut the orange into segments and eat off the skin.
As one of the AIS scientists proudly stated at the end of the experiment/testing, "Well perhaps our mothers' did know best after all that's what they always wanted to give us at half time for school sports."
In controlled conditions the difference in re-hydration and muscle recovery between the orange segments and every other 'marketed' alternative was statistically significant. Some alarmingly so.
You still need to consume water in addition (as with any of the sports 'marketed' items unless they contained a high water content themselves such as premixed Gatorade in a bottle vs Gatorade powder).
The benefit of the orange segments was such that athletes ranging from weekend warriors to Olympic hopefuls were able to recover from significant exercise/race events (such as 3 hour runs) to the point that they had no decrease in performance the next day (no carry-over muscle fatigue/soreness etc).
Doesn't help the tens of billions sport's nutrition market but sure helps your own hip pocket.
