Homemade Vitamin C From Citrus Peels

This morning we had oranges with our Sunday Brunch.  We know orange and lemon and also grapefruit peels have nutritional values.  So we decided what to make with them.  Half of them, we put in a jar and filled the jar with white vinegar.  In a couple of weeks, we'll have orange vinegar as a multipurpose cleaning solution.  We found out there are lots of good benefits of eating orange peel like: Packed with vitamin C, Skin Cancer Prevention, Inhibits Lung Cancer, Lowers Cholesterol Levels, Smoking Cessation.  Read more about its benefits here: Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/article/440499-a-list-of-the-benefits-of-orange-peels/#ixzz2Xm8kChp6

How To Make Vitamin C From Citrus Peels

1. Assemble a variety of citrus fruits – e.g. lemons, limes, oranges, tangerines and grapefruits. It is important that the fruit is organic as you don’t want to be eating peels sprayed with nasty chemicals. 
2. Wash the fruit using white vinegar and peel off the skin.
3. Cut the peels into small thin squares, place on a cloth and put by the window in full sunlight.
4. Allow the peels to dry and shrivel for a few days.  We used our dehydrator to dry them.
5. Once dried, use a coffee grinder or similar device and turn your peels into a powder. We used our Vitamix.  Store in an airtight container.  
6. Use one teaspoon in your shakes, or juice or baking goods.

This is an article on orange peels from Live Strong.com

You can buy vitamin C powder in pharmacies up and down the country – often costing $10 and upwards. When you buy vitamin C powder, you are often buying a “dead” product since many of the powders contain inactive enzymes.

Save yourself some money and make your own vitamin C powder with live enzymes by following these simple steps…

Volia – you have made homemade vitamin C powder!

Simply mix one teaspoon into your morning smoothie or juice to get more than your required vitamin C dose for the day.

Many people who eat oranges discard the orange peel, mainly because of its bitter taste. Orange peels contain compounds that are beneficial to your health. One medium orange contains over 60 flavonoids and 170 different phytonutrients, according to Rebecca Wood, author of "The New Whole Foods Encyclopedia." Most of these beneficial compounds come from the albedo -- the white matter that hugs the orange. When you learn of the benefits the orange peel offers, you might change your mind about abandoning the peel the next time you eat an orange.

The flavonoids in an orange peel help vitamin C, an important antioxidant vitamin, work more efficiently. Flavonoids also retard the growth of cancer cells by withholding energy requirements needed by these harmful cells. In a 2000 study conducted at the Arizona Cancer Center, researchers found that d-limonene, a major component in orange peels, reduced the occurrence of squamous cell carcinoma, a deadly form of skin cancer. Participants who regularly consumed the peel of an orange had a significantly reduced rate of skin cancer over those who regularly consumed only the orange.

Two compounds in orange peel may protect against lung cancer. A 2009 study conducted at the Department of Food Science at the University of Massachusetts found polymethoxyflavones contained in the peel of sweet oranges inhibited the growth of cancer cells of the lung. Another compound, called liminoid, might also be responsible for preventing cancer of the lung as well as cancer of the stomach, colon and breast.

An orange peel contains two important flavones: hesperidin and polymethoxylate. These are compounds that help lower low-density lipoprotein, or LDL, cholesterol levels, according to a 2004 joint study conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and KGK Synergize, a nutraceutical company. Researchers suggest that taking dietary supplements containing orange is more ideal than eating the peels. The reason: you would need to eat 20 orange or tangerine peels a day for the peels to have a therapeutic effect on LDL cholesterol levels.

Orange peel extract is an ingredient used in a variety of health and beauty products, ranging from cold medicines to bath and body products.