A study has recently found that eating citrus fruits like oranges and lemons will help you to stay healthy and also restrict the dangerous effects of obesity-related heart disease, liver disease and also diabetes.

The study states that this is due to the high antioxidant element in fruits, which are known as flavanones. The researchers of the study claim that when humans consume a high-fat diet, they acquire fat in their bodies. Those fat cells then produce extremely reactive oxygen species, which can damage other cells in a process called oxidative stress.

Oxidative stress when coupled with inflammation in obese individuals, increases risks associated with developing heart disease, liver disease, and diabetes.

The study also suggests that consuming citrus fruits probably could have beneficial effects for those who are not corpulent, but follow diets rich in fats, putting them at risk of developing cardiovascular disease, insulation blockage, and abdominal obesity. 

Moreover, Thais B. Cesar, the lead researcher from UNESP has stated that the study did not display any weight loss due to the citrus flavanones. They noted that even without losing the weight, citrus fruits can help you to become healthier, lowering the oxidative stress, acute liver damage as well as reducing the risks of other obesity-related diseases.

For the study, the team of conducted experiments on 50 mice and treated them with flavanones that are found in oranges, limes, and lemons, or a high-fat diet.

The group, which consumed high-fat diet without the flavanones, exhibited an increase in the levels of cell damage markers called the thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS). The effects could be seen 80 per cent in the blood and 57 per cent in the liver, compared to the group of mice who were on a standard diet.

The findings of the study were presented at the 252nd National Meeting and Exposition of the American Chemical Society, which was held in Philadelphia.