Okay, real quick. When you think of the most popular food source of vitamin C, what’s the first thing that comes to mind?

If you’re like most people, you probably thought of an orange.

All that sunshine-y, vitamin C goodness. And what’s better than to get all that sunshine in a tall glass of orange juice?

Well, lots, actually.

Oranges are supposed to be good for you, but orange juice? In fact, ANY fruit juice for that matter, is one of the more misleading health foods sold on the market.

Let’s talk about why I loathe this food product so much:

Commercial fruit juice is pasteurized

That means it’s boiled. They do this to kill off any potential bacteria, mould & fungus that may develop in the juice, but in the process, kill off anything that was ever nutritious about it in the first place.

Sometimes, the companies use the term “flash pasteurized.” That means it’s scalded to death – but only for a second. Like, gentle torture. Puh-leeze.

It’s made with second-hand oranges

You know those nice, beautiful, plump oranges you get in the supermarket? Well, there are a whole buncha’ oranges that didn’t make the cut. The bruised, ugly, molding, rotten oranges get a second life and become – woohoo! – orange juice.

It’s flavoured to taste like orange juice

This comes straight off the Tropicana Orange Juice website:

…the orange oil is extracted from the peel to capture the from-the-orange taste and aromas which are later carefully blended into the juice for consistent quality and flavor.

I dunno ’bout you, but that sounds like code for chemical shit-storm to me.

And for good reason. Tropicana admits that oranges have a limited growing season, and so in order to provide us with yummylicious OJ all year long, “some juice is then stored for future packaging.” Hmmmm, 8-month old orange juice, anyone?

Gee, thanks.

It tastes like crap

If you’ve ever drank a glass of fresh-squeezed orange juice, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about. Commercial fruit juice is blegh-y.

But now, let’s get to the most important point of all:

Orange juice will make you fat

Let’s look at a typical nutritional label of OJ, shall we? Most orange juices have a minimum of 22 g of sugar in every 8 oz glass.

A teaspoon of sugar is 4 g. Do the math. An 8 oz glass will carry a minimum of 5 1/2 teaspoons of sugar.

To put things in perspective, an 8 oz serving of Coca Cola is about 27 g of sugar, which is only a difference of one teaspoon.

Your glass of OJ is only slightly better than a glass of sugary soda.

Makes sense… Tropicana is owned by Pepsi, afterall.

Step away from the juice, lady, and no one will get hurt

Let’s keep those cartons on the shelves. They don’t belong in your home, honey. So do yourself a favour and grab a piece of fruit, and enjoy some real food today.

In health and high heels,

Mina

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photo credit (feature photo): cobalt123 via photopin cc
photo credit: Brett Roegiers via photopin cc

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