A recent study showed that people who drink a lot of soda pop sweetened with high fructose corn syrup have higher levels of serum uric acid and more frequent attacks of gout than those who drink only artificially sweetened soda pop. It's been known for forty years that fructose can have that effect. Cane sugar (table sugar) probably has the same effect since its almost identical chemically to high fructose corn syrup.

An even more recent study shows that taking 400-500 mg a day of vitamin C mitigates that effect of fructose. That's probably why the effect of fructose in fruit is much less severe - because there is natural vitamin C in fruit. But when the fruit is used to make fruit juice that is shelved for a long time, the natural vitamin C may be reduced, but the fructose isn't.

I drink a ton of soda at my new job and this is a perfect reason to cut it out. Is eating an orange in the morning as good as taking c pills?

It's my impression the an orange contains less vitamin C than 400 mg, but it probably contains enough to protect humans from the deleterious effects of the fructose contained in that orange. I'm sure that there are websites that describe the range of vitamin C that can be found in one orange.