Tangerine or Tangor
Food · Fruit · Food, Typed Supps
The easy-peeling citrus. What changes across the group is sweetness, seeds, and how easily the skin comes away.
Stage by stage
- Intake (Juice vesicles rupture): Chewing bursts the juice vesicles, releasing sugars, citric acid and vitamin C.
- Stomach (Acid and sugar load): Citric acid and fruit sugars are handled quickly; the segment membranes supply modest fibre.
- Small intestine (Active vitamin C transport): Vitamin C is taken up by sodium-dependent transporters, efficiently at food-level doses.
- Tissues (Collagen and carotenoid stores): Vitamin C supports collagen synthesis; beta-cryptoxanthin is stored and converted slowly to vitamin A.
Time to effect
- Hours: Plasma vitamin C rises within roughly 2 to 3 hours; carotenoid status changes over weeks.
Allergens
None of the fourteen major allergens. Derived from what this food is, not from a product label.
Eating patterns
Fits: Vegan, Vegetarian, Pescatarian, Halal, Kosher, Gluten-free. Depends on the product: Keto, Low-FODMAP.
Satiety
The satiety index is measured on 240 kcal servings. At 43 kcal per 100 g that is 558 g of this, which is not a serving anyone eats — so the index has nothing to say about it.
Environmental footprint
0.4 kg CO2e and 83 litres of freshwater per kg, matched to "Citrus fruit" in Poore & Nemecek (2018), Science 360.
Cost band
Cheap — roughly £3 per kg, as a band midpoint rather than a price.
Key nutrients
Nutrition per 100g
- Calories: 43
- Protein: 1g
- Carbohydrate: 8.1g
- of which sugars: 8.1g
- Fat: 0.2g
- of which saturated: 0g
- Fibre: 1.5g
- Sodium: 2mg
Food vs. supplement
For vitamin C, the fruit is the better delivery system at ordinary intakes: absorption is near-complete at food-level doses and falls off steeply as supplement doses climb, with the excess excreted. The fruit also brings beta-cryptoxanthin, folate, potassium and fibre that no vitamin C tablet contains. Supplements have a place in genuine deficiency, which is rare where fresh produce is available.
Kitchen tip
Leave the pith on. Choose fruit heavy for its size with slightly loose skin — this group is picked ripe and does not sweeten further after harvest, so a hard, light fruit will not improve on the bench. Eating them alongside something containing fat improves carotenoid uptake.
Common myth
“Loading up on citrus at the first sign of a cold will stop it.” In reality: It will not. Regular vitamin C intake modestly shortens colds — around 8% in adults — but starting a high dose once symptoms appear has not been shown to help, and prevention has only been demonstrated in people under extreme physical stress. Eat the fruit because it is good, not as a cure.
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