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The Secret Ingredient In Your Orange Juice
Those of us who drink store bought orange juice most likely go for the fresh squeezed, not from concentrate variety.
But even this kind is unsafe from a troublesome ingredient you’ll never find on the carton. It isn’t listed in the ingredients probably because it could be considered part of the orange juice process. But this definite additive is supposedly warranted by the flavor-sucking process at orange juice factories.
After finding out more it makes one wonder why the factories bother producing this lifeless product at all. It’s because we want it, we buy it, and we think we are drinking something we are not.
~Health Freedoms
Do you buy orange juice at the store? If you do, I’m sure you’re careful to buy the kind that’s 100% juice and not made from concentrate. After all, that’s the healthier kind, right? The more natural kind? The kind without any additives? The kind that’s sold in the refrigerator section so it must be almost as good as fresh-squeezed orange juice?
If I’m describing you, then you’re either going to hate me or love me by the time you’re done reading this post. The truth is, that orange juice you feel so good about buying is probably none of those things. You’ve been making assumptions based on logic. The food industry follows its own logic because of the economies of scale. What works for you in your kitchen when making a glass or two of juice simply won’t work when trying to process thousands upon thousands of gallons of the stuff.
Haven’t you ever wondered why every glass of Tropicana Pure Premium orange juice tastes the same, no matter where in the world you buy it or what time of year you’re drinking it in? Or maybe your brand of choice is Minute Maid or Simply Orange or Florida’s Natural. Either way, I can ask the same question. 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 things like Coca Cola or Pepsi or a Starbucks Frappuccino. When you make orange juice at home, each batch tastes a little different depending on the oranges you made it from. I hope you’re hearing warning bells in your head right about now.
The reason your store bought orange juice is so consistently flavorful has more to do with chemistry than nature.
Making OJ should be pretty simple. Pick oranges. Squeeze them. Put the juice in a carton and voilà!
But actually, there is an important stage in between that is an open secret in the OJ industry. After the oranges are squeezed, 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– but that liquid that we think of as orange juice tastes nothing like the Tropicana OJ that comes out of the carton. (source)
In fact, it’s quite flavorless. So, the industry uses “flavor packs” to re-flavor the de-oxygenated orange juice:
When the juice is stripped of oxygen it is also stripped of flavor providing chemicals. Juice companies therefore 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 orange essence and oil. Yet those in the industry will tell you that the flavor packs, whether made for reconstituted or pasteurized orange juice, resemble nothing found in nature. The packs added to juice earmarked for the North American market tend to contain high amounts of ethyl butyrate, a chemical in the fragrance of fresh squeezed orange juice that, juice companies have discovered, Americans favor. Mexicans and Brazilians have a different palate. Flavor packs fabricated for juice geared to these markets therefore highlight different chemicals, the decanals say, or terpene compounds such as valencine.
The formulas vary to give a brand’s trademark taste. If you’re discerning you may have noticed Minute Maid has a candy like orange flavor. That’s largely due to the flavor pack Coca-Cola has chosen for it. Some companies have even been known to request a flavor pack that mimics the taste of a popular competitor, creating a “hall of mirrors” of flavor packs. Despite the multiple interpretations of a freshly squeezed orange on the market, most flavor packs have a shared source of inspiration: a Florida Valencia orange in spring. (source)
Why aren’t these flavor packs listed as ingredients?
Good question! As with all industrial foods, it’s because of our convoluted labeling laws. You see, these “flavor packs are made from orange by-products — even though these ‘by-products’ are so chemically manipulated that they hardly qualify as ‘by-products’ any more.” (source) Since they’re made from by-products that originated in oranges, they can be added to the orange juice without being considered an “ingredient,” despite the fact that they are chemically altered.
So, what should you do about it?
First off, I must ask: Why are you drinking juice?? Juice removed from the fruit is just concentrated fructose without any of the naturally-occurring fiber, pectin, and other goodies that make eating a whole fruit good for you. Did you know, for example, that it takes 6-8 medium sized apples to make just 1 cup of apple juice? You probably wouldn’t be able to eat 6-8 medium apples in a single sitting. (I know I can barely eat one!) But you can casually throw back a cup of apple juice, and you would probably be willing to return for seconds. That’s why fruit juice is dangerous. It’s far too easy to consume far too much sugar.
So, my first piece of advice is to get out of the juice habit altogether. It’s expensive, and it’s not worth it.
My second piece of advice is to only drink juices that you make yourself,
and preferably ones that you’ve turned into a healthy, probiotic beverage(like this naturally-fermented lemonade my own family enjoys). Sally Fallon Morrell’s Nourishing Traditions cookbook (pictured at right) has several lacto-fermented juice coolers that are pleasant, albeit expensive. (I especially like the Grape Cooler, Raspberry Drink, and Ginger Beer.) Want to make juicing easier? See here for where to buy juicers and Vitamix blenders.
And finally, opt out of the industrial food system as much as you can. If you learn anything at all from this post, it should be that you never know what’s in your food unless you grow it, harvest it, or make it yourself. Second best (and more practical for many, including myself) is to pay somebody I trust to do it — like the farmers at my Farmer’s Market, the cattle rancher I buy my annual grass-fed beef order from, or the chef at my local restaurant who’s willing to transparently answer questions about how he sources ingredients and what goes into the dish I’m ordering.
Edited On 7/29/2011 To Include:
I’ve gotten a number of comments and emails accusing me of being afraid of “science” or “chemicals.” To those readers, I suggest that you are missing my point entirely. As I wrote in a comment below, I think what bugs me the most about the flavor industry is that they manufacture flavor for otherwise flavorless or unpalatable foods. I think if a food needs to have synthetic flavors added to it for us to enjoy it, then we ought to question whether or not it’s actually good for us and worth eating. It’s not so much that I think the flavors are unnaturally engineered chemicals (although sometimes, as with MSG, there is cause for concern). In this post, I’m not questioning the health or merit of added chemicals (“natural” or “synthetic”); I’m questioning the health or merit of so-called foods that are so devoid of flavor or color that we have to add back in chemical flavorings and colors to make them palatable. Furthermore, I’m questioning the judgement of our regulatory bodies which allow misleading product labeling to continue.
Source:
http://www.foodrenegade.com/secret-ingredient-your-orange-juice/
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Thanks for sharing it.
I’d be interested to know which brands have this and which don’t. Like does Florida’s Best have it? Here in Indiana, we don’t get access to lots of juice oranges and they are rarely organic and certainly not fresh. We don’t drink a lot of OJ but once in a while its nice.
“…afraid of “science” or “chemicals”" ????
Really humans….
What intelligent sense does it make to take nature’s vegetation – which is innately created by the Earth we are born naked upon to BUILD our very CELLS which keep us alive – to put through a process that is unnatural, that strips it from it’s complex of synergystic nutrients where it’s left with separated elements, tasteless and lifeless, to then add man-made garbage made from inventions we are not very sure about because science does NOT KNOW NATURE COMPLETELY… so that it can last UNnaturally for a year or yearsss??
WHERE on Earth’s land will you find something like THAT??
All those who commented like that should seriously research for themselves what this type of science and these chemicals are doing to our bodies, animals, and the Earth upon which we feed. You will find that your comments stems from being entrained to accept what we have come to believe is “progression” and “advancement” which pervades our daily living. You will come to realize that something that was as natural as walking, which is the feeding of ourselves, has been turned over to a FEW to decide for ALL OF US: what, why, how, when, where, how much, how long, and with what. We eaters have allowed a FEW the RESPONSIBILITY of KEEPING OUR BODIES ALIVE. Yes, it’s that serious.
We modernized humans forget that we emerged from ONE CELL containing the archive of information NO SCIENTIST HAS that CREATED, built,constructed our hands,feet, organs, complex systems, WITHOUT the help of our greatest surgeon, scientist laureate or genius… and that’s not even counting our consciousness, which no one even remotely understands comepletely, nor knows of its origens.
THAT is how POWERFUL nature is – she BUILDS OUR BODIES – regardless of religious denominations.
Would you say then that if she BUILT us, she would KNOW how to repair us?
So, if she is to repair us…. why are we taking her apart?????…without possessing her archive of information???
Could this possibly be the cause of all our emerging diseases??
That is not a mind twister – it shouldn’t be.
But, we go with the flow…don’t we….
I don’t want to stick my head in the sand, but I almost can’t take reading these articles anymore. It is so discouraging. I feel like there is a mountain in front of me that I’ll never be able to climb. As a mother of a 2 yo & 4 yo, I try to give them the best possible nutrition from whole sources. But my oldest child has severe sensory issues (which I am CONVINCED come from the environment & food additives) and would never eat a piece of fruit. I depend on liquids to give him a lot of his nutrition. We do have a garden in the summertime where we grow organic vegetables and fruit.
I work 10+ hours per day including a two hour commute. I have barely 3 hours with my children during the week, and it’s not like I make a huge salary. We just get by. We do what we can. I would love to drop out & stay home & juice all my own drinks, grow my own food, etc. but it’s just not possible.
How do people protect themselves & their families when something like this comes out every day??
End the sugar roller-coaster and stop believing the Vitamin C in a glass of orange juice is so dang significant! Well it could be in terms of a deficiency but not in terms of optimal health.
“I almost can’t take reading these articles anymore. It is so discouraging.”
Don’t you get the MESSAGE? You can eat NO PROCESSED food. NONE.
Once you flip you will not eat the same. Your life will change. You will spend more time in the kitchen preparing meals from RAW food and far less time in the doctors office.
Your cost of living will go way DOWN and your enjoyment of life will go way UP.
Of course with the GMO poisons it has gotten more complicated. But lets save that for another day and not discourage you some more.
I must admit when your government is complicit in a plot to indirectly murder you it is discouraging. Vote all the criminals out.
WHAT???? ALL THESE YEARS I BOUGHT INTO THIS “NOT FROM CONCENTRATE” HYPE AND PAYING MORE AND THINKING I WAS GETTING A BETTER PRODUCT?
More delusions and illusions and what appear to be deceptions by the corporate food industries!!! That really ticks me off!!!
So really what’s happening is ….”IT’S NOT REALLY WHAT IT IS UNTIL THEY CHEMICALLY FAKE IT TO BE SO JUST TO GET US TO LIKE IT AND BUY IT”!!!
What I resent the most are the basically weasel-friendly “non-labeling” laws about things in a product. They obviously already assume if we are expecting the pure natural NOT FROM CONCENTRATE product they advertise and then read on the label some DR. FRANKENSTEIN STUFF they’ve been doing to it, we won’t buy it. And you know what? In my case, now that I know what the “facade” is, I’m not buying it because of their deception.
They should have listed it with an explanation of what it is and what it’s for, and what it’s from, and we can accept or reject it……..BUT NOWHERE ON ANY CARTON BY ANY OF THE COMPANIES OUT THERE IS THIS INFORMATION FOR CONSUMERS TO CONSIDER.
Though I enjoy whole oranges and grapefruits the majority of the time, fresh juice is certainly excellent as a fresh fruit drink also. I have a juicer and will now definitely put it back on the counter and use it consistently when needed. It’s not that difficult or time consuming…AND I’LL KNOW 100% WHAT’S IN MY ORANGE JUICE!!!
GOODBYE CORPORATE JUICE FAKERS. YOUR SNEAKY SERVICES ARE NO LONGER WANTED OR NEEDED!!!
conversations….
My point?
I became very discouraged and depressed when I learned about this manipulation of our foods behind our backs from a conversation between two women at my grocery store… how ALL, they went on, our foods are poisoned…
Whoa! –stop. …??…
…ALLLLL our foods??! Naaah…how could that be? …no, not with our protective agencies… no, that can’t be.
Their voices continued to echo through my entrained somnambulistic denial…particularly the echo of their tone of dark resignation…a tone that unnerved me frighteningly.
Conform to that? No, I HAVE to see how true this is…
I began to investigate the products on my own, and sure enough, after counting ingredients on food labels, I found our family was consuming 1,872 minimum toxins, synthetics, chemicals, or artificial ingredients per month – EACH of us…and we had a better than average diet (no “junk” foods)! This did NOT include the water we add to cooking or drinks, nor juices, colas, the meats, chicken, milk, eggs, restaurant/fast foods, medications, amalgams, the oils we cook with, the salts, the spices, the breads; the GMOs in fresh vegetables and food items that the USDA does NOT require to tell us; the chemicals in shampoos, conditioners, gels, sprays, make-up, lotions, tanning lotions – again NOT required to tell us and are absorbed through our skin. Added hormones in the meats, chicken, milk, eggs; chemicals or “natural” derivatives acting like hormones in our bodies causing allergies and hormonal imbalances in our endocrine system (and thus behavioral impalances); not to mention the tons of chemicals/metals dumped from corporate by-products in the air; radiation in diagnostic tests, microwaves, technology….etc. But…
1,872 toxins – MAN-MADE – sitting in my cupboards, pantry… stewing in our meals…
Well, no wonder I became ill again with fibromyalgia – that still “mysterious” illness, one of many – AFTER having healed myself with natural foods and supplements from a 10 year long stint of physical misery.
Conversation…that piece of important conversation I happened to catch. Those ladies’ ears must ring daily, because I thank them every day for enlightening me that day. A similar life changing conversation from a stranger took place decades before that – shedding light on the reality of a bad relationship – and she had been right.
A more recent conversation surprised me – my sister (who had laughed at my natural methods, ignoring my results) came to me for my experience a la natural, when SHE found herself going nowhere with a medical illness. Somewhere her own echoes were beckoning her to desist a dark resignation…
My daughter brought her friend to me… Mom, she’s catching a cold…give her that herb you give me…tell her what not to eat…
While impersonal emails and texts are not opening meaningful conversations, other ones apparently do, while we think no one is listening. …The ones we have with our families… the ones we have with our friends and neighbors… the conversations we have through this media here… while others are also listening.
People do listen to conversations.
Advertisements use this effectively.
Some conversations we are having with the wrong people or the wrong conversations. Government departments/agencies, parties, senators…. Those conversations are going too slowly.
It’s time we take our conversations to the ones who would listen to us on a major scale… the ones whose very existence and whose growing empires started and depend on US, OUR habits. Take our conversations straight to our product corporations… the ones relying on advertisements to converse with us about what’s MEANINGFUL to THEM – their products.
Let’s take the advertizing campaign to THEM – because it appears that they are driven by THOSE types of conversations which they Do listen to. Let’s pour on them our conversations directly from our largest corporation that rivals the size of ALL corporations, small and large, of which we are millions – our millions of home addresses… and talk about what we are sick – literally – about… their deceptions, their misrepresentations, their poisons, their toxins, their life-spent ingredients, their lifeless garbage, their GMOs. I say, let’s tell them WE ARE SICK AND TIRED OF YOUR JUNK… WE WILL EAT IT NO MORE!… GIVE US BACK THE FOOD WE WERE BORN TO FEED UPON.
Imagine millions of rational, reasonable letters jamming their mailrooms… er…I’m sure they may still have one…small one?…
…sweeter still – and WE won’t need aspartame nor fructose corn syrup (GMO and endocrine disruptor, by the way) – millions of emails jamming receipt of their corporate emails…millions of faxes jamming their faxes….
Oh… do they make only one advertisement for their conversations to us?
Well, let’s honor their much concerned communication efforts…let’s triplicate those efforts… umm…now, what is it?…er….how many commercials per 5 minutes of viewing time, advertisements per home pages, per search engine, per mouse clicks, per youtube videos – all day, week, month, year long? Oh…it costs them BILLIONS in advertisements… which you know they pass on to us… What will it cost us? … a few clicks of the mouse? …a few fiber optic flickers at the speed of light?… a 44 cent stamp?…from the comfort of our home offices? …making proud our efficient use of our provider bill payments?
How many companies may we reach, one company one day at a time?
They can’t fire us, or replace us. Is it fair that they are the only ones to organize and use strategy on us ALL the time? Do they really want to lose their paying customers? Imagine at this rate, organic prices will go way down.
We have no need to despair – let’s not be entrained experimental mouses – Let Corporate America hear our mouses!
But they won’t, unless we advertize our wants, unless we MOVE, unless we ACT…beyond the zombie state their fructose has us under.
Search/see-listen to “Seeds of Deception” video – you will understand much.
Download/Send for their list of GMO foods and chemicals/companies and petition forms – or create your own.
Search Natural Solutions Foundation, Natural News, Institute for Responsible Technology, Union of Concerned Scientists, Change Org, Scientific Society in UK, Tony M. Isaacs
P.S. My own daughter suffered from sensory problems and slight autism. After massaging her along the spine at age 5 every day with cold pressed Peanut oil (nerve stimulation) and warmed Castor oil packs on the abdomen (there is an abdominal brain there, and it helps intestinal detox and inflamation) for 1 1/2 hours a day/ 3 days on 3 days off (ancient protocols), taking her to chiropractic adjustments (which helps the nervous system) – there was a change in her about every 3 months, she even began asking for it… when she hated to be touched! First change was being able to look at me in the eyes! She is a very capable, independent,intelligent 17 year old today.
Castor oil also dissolved a cyst behind my navel from a tubal ligation – within 5 days, the size of a golf ball. ..and many other wonderful things.
Nice information, i think it’s very useful to read this. i agree with you.
“HOW TO BE HEALTHY IN ONE EASY LESSON.” Live like your great grandmother and great grandfather did. And don’t forget the Christian’s greatest weapon…”fasting and prayer.”
For those of you who are depressed from reading about these things, you should look into probiotics to help your stomach flora (and your family). You’re depressed from all the reconstituted (lifeless) ingredients and GMOs in your system that are wreaking havoc on your stomach flora according to a study published in Neurogastroenterology & Motility, March 2011.
According to an Ohio State University study done around the same time, published in the journal, “Brain, Behavior, and Immunity,” Stress can change the balance of bacteria that naturally live in the gut. Balancing out your stomach flora helps relieve that stress.
For those of you with very little time to take care of your family, get some probiotics and a VitaMix. It only takes a few minutes to grind up your fav fruits and/or veggies in a VitaMix into a nice juice. If there’s too much pulp, put the fruit pulp into a cold or hot cereal or put the veggie pulp into a fritata.
The point of ingesting fresh fruits and veggies rather than reconstituted is to get living enzymes into your system to aid your stomach flora. I don’t want to be a squirmy homo domesticus living on industrial garbage. I want to live the way nature intended.
8-21-2011
Does this sound like the tincture of bovine they call milk in this country.
I don’t touch the stuff anymore as to many chemicals and radiation are included and you can’t taste the difference from one coast to the other either. Where are the food police?
Back to the paper carton oddity they call orange juice. I read a report/study that unless you have an orange tree in your back yard and rush it in the house to juice right way you loose 80% of the vitamin C. So what I do is juice my oranges from the health food store and open my C caps and dump it in my juice and hope it works.
Thanks for your many good articles Lois, as when I see your by line I read’um all! ~~~ Chet
SQUEEZE SQUEEZE SQUEEZE AND IF YOU THINK YOU DON’T HAVE THE TIME TO SQUEEZE MOTHER NATURE’S FRUITS, THEN PLEASE SQUEEZE SOMEMORE!
There’s more. If you drink pasteurized orange juice (which is all of them unless you squeeze it yourself or buy it fresh-squeezed at a juice bar), it will destroy your kidney function. Processed “food” isn’t food. It’s all chemical cocktails and GMO junk. Make your own food and drink from organic ingredients, or pay someone else to do so if you’re too busy. Health and peace.