Think you’re drinking fresh and natural orange juice? Think again……
When shopping for fresh orange juice, I have found the phrase “squeezed from fresh oranges”, is not necessarily the truth. The leading orange juice companies such as Tropicana (PepsiCo)(1), Minute Maid (Coca-Cola), and Florida’s Natural (Citrus World Inc.)(2), tell us several stories. Some include: it’s natural, it’s pure and simple, it’s squeezed from fresh oranges. But they leave out the details about what they think freshly squeezed really is.
The unfortunate reality is that it’s anything but fresh!
In the 1980’s Tropicana coined the phrase “not from concentrate” to distinguish pasteurized orange juice from the “reconstituted concentrate brand”. The idea was to convince us that pasteurized is a fresher, overall better product, and so it cost more.(3) Put enough advertising behind a product campaign, and you can convince the masses to believe a new version of almost anything!!!
However, little were we aware that the process involved stripping the juice of oxygen. This PROCESS prevents OJ from oxidizing in large tanks in which it can be kept for upwards of a year. When the juice is stripped of oxygen, it’s also stripped of flavor. Flavor packs are then added in, and nutritional value is lost.(3) “Refrigeration combined with pasteurization and hermetic packaging can further increase storage life with minimum quality changes, but then the juice cannot be labeled fresh.”
Why pasteurize if drinking fresh is best?
The commercial juice industry is said to be a billion-dollar industry. Corporations need more than a week of shelf-life on their products. The protective agencies think that “fresh” poses risks, and they need to kill off food-borne diseases.
They also think GMO’s will protect processed foods. (14)
But consider this…pasteurization of orange juice kills any benefits of the food, reduces nutrient content leaving it a dead ‘food-less’ food. Pasteurization and thermal heat destroy important key enzymes. Enzymes carry out activities of metabolism. Kill the enzymes, and you now have created a product harder for our digestive system to digest.
Comparing oranges to processed orange juice!
There’s no question to the educated palate that fresh-squeezed homemade juices are better than the tasteless, boxed brands.
The soluble fiber in oranges helps to reduce cholesterol. (8 &10)
Chemical laden, flavor-enhanced orange juices, eliminates any elements of it being able to reduce cholesterol. In fact, the intake of thermally processed foods can promote heart disease. (12)
There are 170 phytonutrients and more than 60 flavonoids in an orange. (10) Fresh oranges contain vitamins such as magnesium, B1 and Calcium. (10)
Unfortunately, synthetic vitamins are put into several of your favorite brands of processed and boxed OJ in the grocers. Just in case you’re wondering, synthetics are not fresh or easy to digest. What can you do? Check for labels that say enriched, enhanced or extra vitamins added.
Additionally, if you need to reduce fluoride exposure, most store-bought juices can contain high levels of fluoride and never list it on the label.
The bottom line, an organic orange is free from the use of pesticides and fluorides.
Are there problems drinking processed chemicals?
*Processed orange juice may cause our bodily systems inflammation and increased allergies. A number of children are consuming orange juice every day in place of water, which can increase weight gain and sugar highs.
*Sugary beverages may increase our risk for pancreatic cancer. (13)
*Boxed OJ seems to be the cure-all for low blood sugar. However, giving fake, lifeless orange juice to diabetics is ludicrous, because sugar doesn’t cure sugar-related disabilities. Sugar may cause more harm.
*An abundance of processed sugars and synthetics can be linked to brittle bones.
Liquid sugar is a term used for bottled, bagged, canned, or boxed store-bought juices. Liquid sugar is the single largest source of added sugar in the American diet. (6) Adding unnecessary sugar and chemicals to a lifeless orange juice is not a thirst quencher, it’s a belly buster! It just keeps you on the addiction cycle to crave more sugar. If you are concerned with belly fat, the more sugar you eat and drink can be deposited directly in your midsection. (7) In fact, lifeless sugary drinks without the fiber sets the stage for a fatty liver, obesity, and type 2 diabetes. (5)
When a person suffers from diabetes, adding in additional chemicals, colors, and sugars can increase advanced glycation end products, oxidative stress, and osteoporosis. (9) What’s worse, AGEs can lead us down the road to Alzheimer’s. (11)
Today there are several new alterations of our food system in the U.S. by the powerful corporations who have the money to engineer new and exciting modified foods for mankind! To make matters worse, genetically modified oranges are on their way to Florida and Texas. These artificial oranges are supposed to be good for the farmers and the corporations, but little concern is given to public health. These will be oranges that are resistant to “citrus greening.” The EPA’s gave its approval to Southern Gardens (related companies) Citrus World Inc, Dole Juice, Naked Juice, Tropicana, Tree Top and more) and plans to plant 150 acres in Florida and 50 acres in Texas. (4)
People can be confused with thousands of ad campaigns promoting misinformation in what’s truly healthy and what’s not.
If you been deceived with fresh-squeezed, the solution is easier than you think. Choose foods that are living. Eat the whole organic orange and get all the fiber and nutrients your body needs. Or, if you want the juice, you can easily juice one orange yourself! The juice you create from a whole organic orange will be far healthier for you than the impostor!
Recent New Yorkers Lawsuit.
Conclusion: If you add a little humor to this “Orange Juice Dilemma,” one can say: “I just wanted a glass of fresh-squeezed orange juice, but my government has strict regulations in place, and I have to buy ‘dead food’ instead. The side effects I can experience can lead me down the road towards diabetes, cancer, heart disease, walking hunched over with a cane, and Alzheimer’s Disease…” Not so funny after all!
Footnotes:
2- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida%27s_Natural_Growers
3- http://www.macleans.ca/culture/fresh-from-the-press/
4- http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/14/gmo-oranges-citrus-greening-southern-gardens_n_7244858.html see also
Citrus greening Southern Gardens GMO oranges: https://www.google.com/finance?cid=12863136
5- http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11892-012-0259-6
6- http://www.sugarscience.org/sugar-sweetened-beverages/#.VWpOz2C29U4
7- http://www.sugarscience.org/the-toxic-truth/#.VWpRWWC29U4
8- http://www.i-cholesterol.com/oranges/
9- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22023404
10- http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=37#safetyissues
11- AGE’s and alzheimers: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18473848
12– http://ucanr.edu/datastoreFiles/608-676.pdf see also http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17854003
13- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23368926
14- http://www.fao.org/docrep/005/y2515e/y2515e09.htm
Connie Rogers is a Certified Health Coach & Brain Health Coach.
She is the author of Memory Stealers on Amazon and video.
Connie believes health and wellness are established with proper nutrition, fitness, and mindfulness. Connie takes a natural and holistic, common sense approach to rebuilding wellbeing from the ground up.
