Many of us like to start our days off the same – no, not like that – behave yourself please! – No, I mean we like to start our day with nice glass of orange juice. Now if you’re one of the holistic health lifestyle brigade, (congratulations and welcome to this article), you probably make sure that you only buy 100% pure orange juice – none of that “made from concentrate” rubbish – am I right?
The purity of truth
Okay, I guess you might think that means that you’re drinking just freshly squeezed orange juice with no additives? Only problem is, you’re not! Whatever the product is; if you’re buying a bespoke product off the shelves of the supermarket – even if it says something like “100% pure squeezed orange juice”, you may be disturbed to know that it’s got additives in it!
It’s all in the flavor – or is it?
Now I’m not talking about the dreaded E numbers – let’s keep this in context. But what I am talking about is almost a lie of omission. It’s along the lines of “what the public aren’t aware of can’t harm them”. You see all of these orange juices that masquerade under the misapprehension of being “just fresh squeezed orange juice” have got orange flavoring in them.
A play on words – William Shakespeare eat your heart out!
I guess the orange juice manufacturers are relying on a sort of “play on words” to fool us into thinking we’re getting something we’re not. They use the phrase “pure squeezed”, and that triggers in our minds the assumption that they mean “fresh squeezed”. But fresh squeezed when you stop to think about it, means just that. You can’t buy fresh squeezed in a carton. The fact that it’s in a carton means that it was squeezed somewhere else, sometime in the past. It’s just us, ourselves, who might mistakenly translate this from “pure squeezed” into “fresh squeezed” – but it’s something the manufacturers don’t fall over their own feet to correct. Where am I going with this? – just be a little more patient and you‘ll see!
When is fresh, not fresh – when it’s processed!
Once upon a time they used to freeze orange juice concentrate – they still do – but then someone decided to apply the process of “deaeration” to making orange juice. Whoops – we’ve just introduced that word – the word that most of us “hollies” (a nickname I use from time to time to describe us holistic health lifestyle freaks), cringe at – the word “process”. Your fresh orange juice just became processed!
What’s in a word?
Deaeration is a process that was invented to take air molecules out of gasses and liquids. It’s a bit like vacuum packing. It means that the substance that’s being processed will last longer – a sort of natural preservative – only, don’t they say that nature abhors a vacuum?
So what?
Now okay, so what – “What’s wrong with that”, I hear you say? – Well nothing – but that’s not all! When you do this with orange juice, you also remove a lot of its natural flavor so what do they do? Yeah, you’ve guessed it – they add flavoring.
Make me a taste – a taste of orange
The sort of flavoring the manufacturers add is made by the same people who make the “scents” that go into perfumes and deodorants. So you get a manufactured flavor in your pure orange juice to put back the flavor that got lost in the manufacturing process. Not quite so pure now is it?
There’s more…
Not content with just adding manufactured flavor back into the juice, manufacturers have apparently admitted to playing with the flavoring on a regional basis to make it more palatable, according to the preferred taste of a specific region. It also seems that because the flavor that is being added is orange, the manufacturers are not obliged under current legislation to make any notes to this effect on the labeling.
Self juicing
The fact of the matter is that if you really want to drink pure, fresh, unadulterated orange juice, you’re going to have to by your own orange juicer, and make your own juice from fresh oranges. At least that way you know that no one will have added any little extras into the mix to make it taste more like fresh orange juice. That only leaves one other thing to worry about….
But even then…
The only thing you have to consider now is what chemicals might find their way into oranges during the growing process. For example, back in January 2012 it was reported that all imports of orange juice from Brazil were to be stopped because it contained a chemical known as Carbendazim, which is used to eliminate fungi and fungal spores. Whilst it’s permitted in Brazil, it’s not approved in the US because tests on rats have revealed that is causes birth defects. While there is no known harm associated with humans at this point in times, tests carried out on human cells have shown that it can cause problems with chromosomes.
The dangers from atmospheric pollution
But even here in the US with our own freshly grown oranges, you might find some level of chemical infiltration; not through pesticides, but things like Perchlorate, a substance that is found in rocket fuel but that has also found its way into surface water, and the fruit and vegetable chain. This chemical can interfere with thyroid gland health and could be particularly dangerous to pregnant women. Whilst there are no reports to date of Perchlorate in orange juice, it’s certainly food for thought.
The best we can do
The only thing left to us lovers of the holistic health lifestyle is to juice our own oranges and be as careful as possible to ensure the oranges we use are US grown and have been organically cultivated. It may not be 100% foolproof, but it’s the best we can do.
Thanks to Tom Royston for his article “What’s in your orange juice” published in www.foodrepublic.com which provided food for thought in writing this article.
