A beverage obtained by squeezing oranges.
In its primal, freshly squeezed state, orange juice is a tonic to be reckoned with. Unfortunately, it's most often drunk after being processed, pasteurized, homogenized, concentrated, bottled, and reconstituted, not necessarily in that order. Still an excellent source of nourishment, consumer-product OJ lacks the richness and fullness of flavor intrinsic to the handcrafted variety. It loses a substantial fraction of its vitaminiferous goodness, as well.
The nutritional analysis below of "raw" (unprocessed) orange juice was obtained from the nutrient database at http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/ for 100 grams of juice. The average single fruit yields 86 grams, and 248 grams fit into a volume of 1 cup. This should provide some insight into why the stuff is so powerful: one small glass contains about three oranges' worth of juice.
Data is also available for various varieties of processed juice; water and carbohydrate contents are similar to the raw but vitamins and minerals fall far short. Orange juice is known for having a lot of vitamin C, but if you're not getting your juice straight from the orange, you're missing out on full doses of that and a whole bunch of other healthful things.
water 88.3 g
energy 45 kcal
protein 0.70 g
fat 0.20 g
carbohydrate 10.4 g
fiber 0.2 g
ash 0.40 g
MINERALS:
calcium 11 mg
iron 0.20 mg
magnesium 11 mg
phosphorus 17 mg
potassium 200 mg
sodium 1 mg
zinc 0.05 mg
copper 0.044 mg
manganese 0.014 mg
selenium 0.1 mcg
VITAMINS:
vitamin C 50.0 mg
thiamin 0.090 mg
niacin 0.400 mg
pantothenic 0.190 mg
acid
vitamin B-6 0.040 mg
folate 30 mcg
vitamin A 200 IU
vitamin E 0.090 mg