If you love the feeling of biting into an orange, but hate the feeling of having to wrestle with the seeds in your mouth, then you will be happy to hear about the orange without seed options that you can find at your local supermarket.
Here’s all you need to know about which oranges are seedless and what makes them different than their seedy counterparts!
Are Oranges Without Seeds Natural?
Every single fruit has seeds, because that is the literal definition of a fruit. However, seedless oranges aren’t just because of humans getting too selective with their oranges.
Instead, seedless oranges are a naturally occurring genetic mutation. It happens naturally, and using our human understanding of genetics, farmers have been able to select, breed, and grow more seedless varieties of oranges.
Why Are There Seedless Oranges?
Seedless oranges arise from a phenomenon called parthenocarpy, where a fruit reproduces without the need for fertilization by another flower’s pollen. Seedless oranges are then reproduced by the process of grafting where a branch from a tree producing seedless oranges is grafted onto another tree.
What’s The Difference Between Seedless Oranges and Oranges With Seeds?
Well, to get the obvious out of the way, one type of orange has seeds, while the other does not. But seedless oranges have some extra differences when compared to their seeded counterparts.
Seedless oranges aren’t as healthy as seeded oranges because they contain fewer vitamins and minerals, and are also lower in fiber, antioxidants, and other nutrients. However, they do contain more juice than seeded oranges, and can be much better for making orange juice and other similar products.
Seeded oranges are very nutritious and packed with everything the body needs, and if you need to get more vitamins and minerals in your diet you should eat the entire orange. Seeds and all!
Finally, seedless oranges tend to have a much longer shelf life when compared to oranges with seeds, though this is whenever they are kept fresh and uncut. Cut oranges need to be used around the day they are cut in order to maximize their freshness.
Which Type Of Oranges Are Seedless?
Navel Oranges
In terms of some of the healthiest fruits in the world and in the field of oranges, you can’t go wrong with the Navel orange. It is considered to be one of the healthiest fruits in the world, even for a seedless orange because it is a wonderful source of Potassium and vitamin C, and it can also lower your risk of getting heart disease.
Blood oranges are just as healthy nutrition wise when compared to navel oranges, and the only main difference is that they have seeds. These seeds give them extra vitamins and minerals, so if you like seedy oranges you can’t go wrong with a blood orange.
Clementines
These seedless oranges are a type of mandarin orange that makes them very popular to eat as they are seedless and sweet! They are among the smallest orange varieties out there in the world, and they practically come apart into segments in your hand!
They are extremely easy to eat raw or they can be used for countless dishes. From garnishing a salad to being the perfect bit of acid and spice for a dessert, to being baked in cakes and loaves of bread and glazes.
Just make sure you don’t eat all of them before you actually use them in a baked good! That is a real danger if you’ve got a massive bag of Clementies around!
The Valencia Orange
This citrus fruit looks like your typical orange, but it has a larger oval shape with nice golden skin. This orange is best for eating raw or for making a lot of wonderful juice, because the valencia orange doesn’t have any limonin, which is a natural compound found in almost all oranges.
The limonin makes the juice of the orange turn bitter whenever it is exposed to the air, but due to the lack of limonin in the Valencia orange, the juice will still be very sweet even after the air gets to it. They’ve got a strong sweet to tart balance that makes anything made with them taste unique.
Cara Cara Oranges
This is a type of navel orange that is also seedless, and while they look like traditional oranges when viewed from the outside, when you cut them open they look amazing. They have pinkish-red and orange flesh, and a very tangy and sweet taste that goes with it.
You can eat them raw, blend them into smoothies, make juice with them, or use them in desserts and other baked goods and even salads. No matter how you choose to eat them, buying and storing these medium sized oranges will be a snap!
Are Seedless Oranges Good For You?
Of course! Some varieties can be just as good as seeded oranges, despite the fact that the orange seeds are safe to eat and can be very helpful for your health. Still, as long as you are making oranges a part of a balanced and complete diet, then you will experience the health benefits of eating them.
Whether they are seedless or not, oranges are good for your health and can also bring a flare to your cooking and your overall diet. So don’t be afraid to pick a variety of oranges that you like and try to start using them more.
Conclusion
There are a large number of different types of seedless oranges out there in the world, and if you look hard you can find some that work for you. No matter if you don’t want to de-seed the oranges before you place them in the juicer, or if you hate the feel of seeds in your mouth as you bite into a raw orange, you can find and eat ones without seeds.
They might even be just as good if not better for your health and your diet, so give them a try!
