How Many Oranges Can a Diabetic Eat per Day? (2023 Update)

Last Updated on March 7, 2023 by Dr Sharon Baisil MD

Updated and medically reviewed by Dr. Sharon Baisil MD on 29 April 2023

Diabetics can eat about 3 to 4 oranges a day, as they have a low Glycemic Index.

A medium-sized orange confers a minimal amount of carbohydrates to your body, ranging from 15 to 18 grams. Besides this, a single 15-gram orange provides you with 250 milligrams of potassium and 1 gram of protein. Not to forget, you are going to obtain fairly adequate amounts of fiber too.

According to the counting system laid down by National Diabetes Information Clearinghouse, 15 grams are equivalent to one serving; this, in turn, corresponds to a single orange as one orange also weighs 15 grams on average. So, plan your calorie intake, keeping the same in mind. If your permissible levels are up to 2000 calories per day, you can eat 2 to 3 servings of fruit daily, but you need to balance this along with the measurements of other meals you take. To give a basic idea, a single chapati made with all-purpose flour contains 200 calories. 2000 calories account for 500 grams of carbohydrates, which means 45 to 60 grams per meal.

You need to be careful with this amount and ensure that the total calorie intake level does not exceed your allowable calories per day. You will considerably receive a guide from your doctor regarding your permitted calorie levels, or you can consult your doctor about this.

Being a low Glycemic food, Diabetics can safely eat Oranges without the risk of blood sugar spikes!

Oranges are regarded as the ideal food to be a part of the diabetic diet chart by the American Diabetes Association (ADA). This gives diabetic patients a green signal for eating oranges with no significant risk of shooting up blood sugar levels.

Oranges come in wide varieties – Valencia, Navel, Blood orange, Mandarin, Caracara, and Seville. All are loaded with powerful antioxidants and are nutritious enough to enhance your overall health management, causing no harm to your blood glucose levels. Oranges contain carbohydrates with a low GI, of less than 55. This means that they will be digested, absorbed, and metabolized by the body, gradually stabilizing the blood sugar levels.

What is the Glycemic Index of Oranges?

The Glycemic Index of Oranges varies from 31 to 48, based on their variety. Any GI score below 55 is safe to eat for a person with diabetes.

Food Name Glycemic Index Serve (g) Carb per Serve (g) Glycemic Load

Oranges, raw 40 120 11 4

Oranges, raw- Sunkist 33 120 10 3

Oranges, raw – Van Nuys, raw 31 120 11 3

Oranges, raw – CA 48 120 11 5

Oranges, raw- USA 48 120 11 5

The moment a person is diagnosed with diabetes, health consciousness begins right there. People often get unsecured about what to eat, what to limit, and avoid maintaining good health completely. A lot of things will keep boggling in your mind, too, as you make your way through a thriving diabetes management routine. Remember, the sole motives of any diabetes control therapy include balancing the amount of carbohydrate intake by the body so that blood sugar levels do not rise much and eliminating the chances of obesity as conditions become more adverse if either of the two is allowed to come into play.

As far as the diabetic diet menu is concerned, you need to acquire complete information on every type of food you can eat and vice versa as the results will be highly variable for each kind of food. There will be foods you can eat without any risk, as well as there will be several fruits and factors you need to limit in your diet, and some foods need to be completely removed from your plates.

What are the Health benefits of eating Oranges for Diabetes?

There is no doubt about the remarkable properties of oranges to boost up natural immunity of the body. Now, it’s time to recognize their plentiful positive contributions to diabetic care.

Oranges are wholesome food nurtured with more than 80 nutrients enclosing thiamin, riboflavin, niacin folates, phosphorus, magnesium, manganese, copper, selenium vitamin B-6. The fascinating thing to emphasize is that this fantastic fruit satiates 100% of the vitamin C your body requires for a day. Whether it is about increasing innate immunity or skin protection from tanning due to sunlight, all of us are known to have essential requirements for vitamin C to be taken by our bodies.

Moreover, powerful antioxidants present in its fight against free radicals reduce the threat of developing oxidative stress during diabetes. To elaborate more, every variety of orange is enveloped with about 170 different phytochemicals, which play a key role in lessening the increased blood sugar levels, and approximately 60 flavonoids with anti-inflammatory effects. Being low in calories and enormous in fiber, they safeguard your body against elevated blood sugar levels. All these factors are convincing enough to include oranges in your daily diet for a healthier lifestyle.

What is the ideal time to eat fruits like Oranges if you have Diabetes?

Is there any best time to eat fruits? Have you heard about some lame assertions like “the best time to eat fruits is during afternoons” or “fruits should be eaten only during the morning hours when the stomach is empty? Otherwise, they will make digestion difficult if taken along with regular meals“? Surprisingly, if you infer properly, then all such myths contrast each other because neither makes any logical sense or scientific basis; hence, we termed them lame. When fruit with high fiber content coupled with food rich in proteins is eaten in the form of regular basic meals, it will cause your stomach to release food in the small intestine more slowly, thereby preventing postprandial diabetes and subsequent rise of blood sugar levels.

Fibers are excellent at speeding down the absorption of food. The sugars will enter the blood at retarded rates having no negative impact on blood glucose levels. The only exception is the case of gestational diabetes, as a person undergoing this problem must avoid eating fruits in the morning hours to get rid of any possible complications. This is because some specific hormones are secreted during pregnancy, which attain their peak levels during the morning and is probably linked with causing a hike in blood sugar levels.

Hence, there is no such preferred time to be considered best or ideal for eating fruits; all the popular sayings you heard to date are merely a myth. There is no evidence to support the fact that you should avoid taking fruits with meals or consider taking them in the afternoon.

6 Tips for adding more Oranges to your Diabetic Diet

Remember, you have to eat oranges as a whole and not in the form of juice. If you buy ready-made orange juice or any other packaged fruit juice from the market, they will contain added preservatives and high sugar content for sure. Hereafter, all the nutritional perks are lost, and you are left with just a harmful drink, heightening diabetes-related health problems.
If you still crave juice, choose to make your juice without adding table sugar; go naturally by squeezing the juicy orange liquid after alienating the seeds and stirring with water.
Make a healthy fruit salad containing nourishing fresh fruits. Agglomerate the oranges, apples, pears, grapes, strawberries, and other similar worthwhile fruits together, cut them into pieces, and sprinkle black salt over them. Enjoy your healthy snack with no stress and the burden of securing your blood glucose levels.
There are innumerable refreshing recipes you can try out with oranges. If you explore the internet, you will find a vast collection of mouth-watering recipes specifically created for diabetes. Nutty orange cakes made with Splenda brown sugar (a low-calorie artificial sweetener) are worth mentioning here. Cakes are a source of delight for everyone, and they make up your day amusing. From orange muffins to creamy orange smoothies, there is a lot more to try your hands on. If you are a non-veg lover, you must try out the grilled orange-mustard chicken recipe to cheer up your cravings without guilt. You will be free from the tension of inflation in blood sugar as all of them are entirely complying with diabetes. These wonderful recipes have no definite end!
Buy a suitable guide or book containing all the necessary authentic information to govern the disease with ease.
If you are a novice at diabetes management, having a courteous diet planner app, “Beat Diabetes,” is a high recommendation. This best-rated app comprises a perfect menu chart for diabetic patients giving a complete array of foods to eat and foods to avoid.

Dr Sharon Baisil MD

Medical Doctor at Beat Diabetes

Dr Sharon Baisil MD is an international award-winning doctor, known for creating innovative technologies for the prevention and treatment of Diabetes. He developed the android app called Beat Diabetes, which is presently the most downloaded diabetes app in India. It was chosen as ‘Diabetes-App of the Year’ globally by Healthline. Dr Sharon has helped over 100,000 individuals with Diabetes from 140 countries, during the past 4 years, to control their sugar levels. You can read all the best-selling Diabetes eBooks by Dr Sharon Baisil MD , by clicking here . All the diabetes articles written by Dr. Sharon are thoroughly researched and draw from peer-reviewed journals like the Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, ensuring the highest quality and reliability of information.

Latest posts by Dr Sharon Baisil MD (see all)

Contents