How healthy is your pack of fruit juice

Do you buy juices at the store? I’m sure you’re careful to buy the kind with labels that boast claims like “All Natural,” “100% juice,” “freshest,”  “no added sugar,” “no preservatives,” “non-GMO,” “gluten free,” “not from concentrate” etc… and make it sound like you are getting phenomenal nutritional value. But truth is the other way.

Haven’t you ever wondered why every glass of Tropicana Pure Premium orange juice or any other brand of choice like Minute Maid or Real or Natural B tastes the same, no matter where in the world you buy it or what time of year you’re drinking it? Why is the taste and flavor so consistent? Why is it that the Minute Maid never tastes like the Tropicana, but always tastes like its own unique beverage?

Generally speaking, beverages that taste consistently the same follow recipes. They’re same things like Coca Cola or Pepsi or a Starbucks Frappuccino. When you make juice at home, each batch tastes a little different depending on the season, quality and batch of fruit you made it from. The reason your store bought juices is so consistently flavorful has more to do with chemistry than nature.

How are they made?

Actually, there are important stages in between that Juice industry wants to keep secret.

1. Processed bottled juice can last up to 2 years. Once fruits are squeezed (cold pressed), fruit juice is rapidly pasteurized or heat treated. Flash pasteurization process is done to kill microorganisms that could cause disease, spoilage, or undesired fermentation. This involves exposing the beverage to 250+ degrees F (thus killing all of the enzymes present) and letting it rapidly cool down after the heat. If heating something that high can destroy all the potentially bad, it can certainly destroy the good stuff too. The high temperatures of pasteurization dramatically reduce antioxidant activity, if not eliminating it completely, destroys the naturally occurring digestive enzyme within the fruit and changes the pH from alkaline to acid. Proteins are denatured by the heat exposure, and the good stuff is gone.
2. The juice is stored in giant holding tanks and, critically, the oxygen is removed from them. That essentially allows the liquid to keep (for up to a year) without spoiling. Removing oxygen also removes the natural flavors of fruits. That liquid that we think of as fruit juice tastes nothing like the fruit juice that comes out of the carton. In fact, it’s quite flavorless. So, the industry uses “flavor packs” to re-flavor the de-oxygenated juice.
3. Juice companies then hire flavor and fragrance companies, the same ones that formulate perfumes for Dior and Calvin Klein, to engineer flavor packs to add back to the juice to make it taste fresh. Flavor packs aren’t listed as an ingredient on the label because technically they are derived from fruit essence and oil. These flavor packs, whether made for reconstituted or pasteurized juice, resemble nothing found in nature. For example the packs added to orange juice tend to contain high amounts of ethyl butyrate, a chemical in the fragrance of fresh squeezed orange juice that, juice companies have discovered. Flavor packs fabricated highlight different chemicals depending upon the type of juice and the country they are made for, as different country people have different palate. These additives and preservatives added to the juice may cause carcinogenic effect on our body.
4. These juices are devoid of fiber, and loaded with lots of “simple” (processed, dead) sugar after the high heat process. This makes your body produce extra insulin to compensate for the extra sugar, which could contribute to diabetes. ***Fructose, the kind of sugar that is found naturally in fruits and vegetables, and in freshly juiced beverages, is fine in moderation when consumed raw (not pasteurized). This is because the live enzymes and nutrients that accompany the sugar offer the body much needed nourishment.

Other concerns about packed juices

• Juices sometimes are bottled in low-quality plastic, which has harmful chemicals that could seep into the beverage.
• Acids from juices can leech metal from cans, causing canned juice to spoil.
• Wax and other chemicals found in juice containers can taint the juice.
• Shrink-wrapped juice cartons come under high heat that depletes enzymes in juice.
• Juices made from imported produce may carry traces of banned pesticides.
• Juices from fruit concentrates do not contain the whole fruits and they may be nothing more than sugar water -- possibly made with chemicals in water from industrial sites.

Natural Juices made at home

In liquid form, the nutrients in fruits and vegetables can break down immediately inside your body, and help it heal and repair itself right away! As an example, you can juice one pound of carrots and reap the health benefits in a matter of seconds, versus chewing on a pound of carrots all day like a rabbit. Natural juices contain all the vitamins, minerals, fluids, enzymes, amino acids and chlorophyll (with no toxic additives) found in raw vegetables - thereby helping the body by:

• Promoting growth and development
• Assisting with digestion
• Providing energy
• Protecting against oxidation
• Renewing cells
• Enriching Blood

Juice is beneficial for:

• People with difficulty chewing can intake raw vegetables in juice form.
• People too busy to eat a meal with vegetables can obtain the nourishment by drinking fresh juice.
• People who lack appetites.
• Juice is a great nutrient source for babies and children who otherwise may not want vegetables and fruits.

We always recommend juicing organic fruits and vegetables whenever possible.