We all know we should eat our fruits and vegetables but most of us just don’t have the time (or the desire) to eat 6-8 servings of them every day. This is why fruit juice flies off the shelves in record numbers each week. Though fancy packaging may make fruit juice seem the best way to fill in those nutritional gaps, it’s anything but. Fruit juice is bad for your health.
Preservatives and Additives in Fruit Juice
An attractive actress sashes through her kitchen, showing off the brand-new figure she’s achieved by drinking a low-calorie fruit juice. A worried mother pours “5 servings of vegetables” into her picky eater’s glass and poof; he doesn’t have to eat anything green again. The camera moves in close as a perfectly-manicured hand pours a cascade of juice into a shining crystal glass.
Clever marketing campaigns make fruit juice look like the most wholesome, refreshing drink in the world. Like it can solve all your problems and make you look beautiful to boot. What they don’t tell you is the fruit isn’t the only ingredient. And what you don’t know about the hidden ingredients can do some serious damage to your health.
Preservatives in fruit juice include:
- High Fructose Corn Syrup
High fructose corn syrup is everywhere and your fruit juice is no exception. Clinical research has proven that this synthetic corn-derived sweetener is one of the leading contributors to the obesity epidemic in the United States.
This is because, despite what you’ve heard, your body can tell the difference between sugar and high fructose corn syrup. Sucrose has to go through an extra metabolic step before your body can use it for energy. High fructose corn syrup is absorbed instantly, causing dangerous sugar spikes that confuse your metabolism. If you have belly bloat you can’t get rid of, HFCS in your fruit juice and soda is the likely culprit.
What’s worse, 80% of corn produced in the United States is genetically modified. This means each time you eat or drink anything containing this synthetic sweetener, you’re consuming pesticides that destroy your gut and damage your immune system.
High fructose corn syrup has also been linked to tooth decay, high cholesterol, depressed immune system, fatigue, and mood swings.
- Aspartame
Aspartame is a synthetic sweetener that acts as a neurotoxin, which overexcites your brain cells into premature death. Aspartame has been linked to the development of chronic headaches, seizures, tinnitus, memory loss, tachycardia, vision problems, numbness, joint pain, vertigo, hearing loss, irritability, and anxiety attacks.
It has also been shown to worsen chronic diseases like fibromyalgia, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, brain tumors, and chronic fatigue syndrome.
You may know that NutraSweet isn’t good for you but did you know it’s made from poop? No, seriously. One of the creepiest things we uncovered in researching this article is finding that out. What they do is take fossil fuel oil (what aspartame starts out as), and feed it to E.coli bacteria that’s genetically modified to defecate this artificial sweetener.
Ugh. No thanks.
- Food Dyes
That pretty purple or red color in your fruit juice doesn’t come from fruit, it comes from food dyes. Yellow #5 has been linked to behavioral disorders, learning disabilities, and insomnia. Red #40 has been linked to hyperactivity and allergic reaction in children. Just about every synthetic food dye has been shown to be carcinogenic.
- BPA
BPA, short for bisphenol A, is an endocrine disruptor found in many of the plastic bottles fruit juice comes in. An endocrine disruptor keeps your hormonal system from functioning properly, which can cause a host of health problems. Side effects from this compound include breast cancer, prostate cancer, diabetes, infertility, hyperactivity, learning impairment, and compromised immune system function.
- Sodium Benzoate
This widely-used food preservative has been known to lead to the development of ADHD and cancer. When sodium benzoate combines with vitamin C, it forms a compound called benzene, a known carcinogen.
- Ethyl Butyrate & Valencine
Your orange juice may claim to be fresh squeezed but the truth is, it could be sitting in a vat for up to a year before it reaches your grocery store. When fruit juice is stripped of its natural oxygen content, the flavor goes with it. Orange juice companies make up for this flavor loss by using enhanced “flavor packets” engineered to make it taste fresh.
What goes into these flavor packets is a closely-guarded secret but we managed to uncovered two of the chemicals; ethyl butyrate & valencine. Ethyl butyrate is a colorless synthetic compound with a pineapple-like flavor. Valencine is a terpene chemical used to preserve the synthetic juice flavor. Laboratory studies have confirmed this volatile organic compound is both a mutagen and a carcinogen.
Bottled Juice That Won’t Kill You
Now that you’ve read all this, you might wonder if it’s safe to ever drink bottled juice again. Read labels. Any fruit or vegetable juice you buy should be bottled in glass and say “USDA Organic” right on the label. Also look for 100% fruit juice with nothing more than juice, water, and vitamins.
Even in this instance, you still might not be getting the health benefits you need. Most organic juice is still pasteurized, meaning it is boiled and stripped of its natural nutrients. Synthetic vitamins are added in later to make up for this gap. Synthetic vitamins are not as easily absorbed by your body as those found in nature and have also been linked to health problems.
The Health Benefits of Juicing from Home
The best way to get complete nutritional benefits from any fruit or vegetable is to eat it whole or juice it yourself at home. When you juice you can consume your recommended daily allowance of fruits and vegetables in one or two servings. Nutrients are easily absorbed and assimilated by your body. You can also get a better variety.
Health benefits of juicing include:
- Weight loss
- Clearer thinking
- Deeper sleep
- Stable appetite
- Younger-looking skin
- Increased energy
- Calmer mood
If you’re new to juicing, start out with fruits and vegetables you already like the taste of non-juiced. This will help you get a feel for the juicing process. Always choose USDA organic fruits and vegetables for juicing as anything else would mean drinking pesticides.
In a perfect world, there would be no preservatives in your fruit juice. But we don’t live in a perfect world. Juice manufacturing companies make millions of dollars every year fooling you into thinking you’re getting healthy by drinking their product. Fight back with your wallet. Start reading food labels and invest in a juicer. It’s the best thing you can do for your health.
***Recommended Research***
Undoubtedly you’ve heard about the health benefits juicing fruits and vegetables. Weight Loss…Clearer Thinking…Digestive Help…More Energy…Healing Powers…Better Nutrition. We all know how good juicing is for our minds and bodies.
In fact not a day goes by that we aren’t bombarded with an offer for a juicer or recipes for tastier drinks. With so much information out there it can be hard to know where to go and who to turn to. In fact sometimes an information overload forces us to tune out whenever a juicing commercial or advertisement pops up.
This is the absolute worst thing that can happen! Juicing is so beneficial to our bodies, we can’t afford to tune it out any longer.
That’s why I was really happy to find Jay Kordich, the father of juicing. Jay and his wife have been juicing since the 80’s. They knew about the power of this nutritional tactic way before it became cool. They didn’t jump on the bandwagon once juicing became popular. Instead they started the trend!
Jay and his wife have been juicing for so long and have seen so much misinformation out there about it that they decided to create The Jay and Linda Kordich School of Juicing. They taught me everything I needed to know to do juicing right.
If you are at all interested in juicing and doing it right, I urge you to check out their video. They cover how to juice, what to juice, how to get started easily, what the best types of juicers to buy are, and most importantly what to avoid and save your money on.
I hope you like Jay and Linda as much as I did.
Good luck!
Jessica Coffey, Publisher
Sources:
http://www.foodrenegade.com/secret-ingredient-your-orange-juice/
http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S26/91/22K07/
http://thegaiareports.weebly.com/monsanto-sells-their-aspartame-business-to-pfizer.html
