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The Secret Ingredient in Orange Juice

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Re: The Secret Ingredient in Orange Juice

#161

Post by kahseng »

MrTonyD wrote: post #151
el_duderino wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you ask your wife what the stuff that appears to be floating in my Martinelli apple juice is? It's a cloud looking like substance in my juice. Does that mean it's been sitting too long? Fermented apple by chance? Smells almost like alcohol when opening it.

I may know what the cloudy stuff is. First, if the juice is outside the "best buy" date, just throw it away. The "cloudy juice" problem happened when they moved to a new production line in Watsonville. They discovered that as juice aged it got cloudy and then started to grow a "tree looking" like thing inside the bottle. It took them months to figure out that the big warehouse doors where they brought in apples was a…

Cool. Reminds me of this mystery fungus from a while ago: http://www.wired.com/2011/05/ff_angelsshare/

Re: The Secret Ingredient in Orange Juice

#162

Post by icanhackit »

MrTonyD wrote: post #131
beloch wrote: post #87

"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 cu…

Well, my wife works for Martinelli's - and it definitely doesn't take 2+ apples to make a cup of apple juice. (I'm not saying that apple juice should be your first choice.) They also carefully monitor "brix", which is the amount of sugar in their juice. They have acceptable targets for that as well as other measures (including John Martinelli tasting the product almost daily.) Personally, I use my Vitamix to make my…

But I'm skeptical about the "juice is bad" meme.

It is and for a simple reason that we've known about for a long time: glycaemic index. If the sugars (fructose) are locked in a matrix of cellulose (AKA dietary fibre) they're released gradually as your body digests the bulk matter. If you plot the blood sugar concentration of the person consuming a solid piece of fruit you see a nice curve where the levels rise, peak, and non-violently fall.

Now when you process the fruit you're effectively pre-digesting it - the sugars are free of the cellulose matrix (the bulk of the fruit) and when you plot the blood sugar concentration after consumption of juice, because no work needs to be done to digest it, the blood sugar level quickly spikes. This provides a rush, then your insulin response peaks, sending your blood sugar levels crashing. This happens much faster than the curve in blood sugar from eating unprocessed fruit.

The only argument I'll accept from people who drink juice: They like it. That's OK. You're allowed to like things. I like beer, which acts similarly to juice with regards to blood sugar concentration.

Re: The Secret Ingredient in Orange Juice

#163

Post by mediumdeviation »

atom-morgan wrote: post #13
gruez wrote: post #10

> I’m not questioning the health or merit of added chemicals (“natural” or “synthetic”) Oh good, I thought you were afraid of chemicals >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. Wait what? I thought you weren't questioning the health or merit chemicals? People like orange juice (more…

> Who cares if chemicals were used to achieve that flavor? He should have just said he was questioning the health of those chemicals. That's what I would say.

Except he never provides any proof that any of the chemicals named are harmful in any way. His claims are

1. Juice produced at industrial scale are loaded with sugar and are less nutritious than actual fruits (true, but also true of any juice, industrial or otherwise)

2. Juice produced at industrial scale is "unnatural" (also true, depending on your definition of "natural", but merely asserting that they are unnatural doesn't mean they're good or bad for you - naturalistic fallacy)

He can't assert that the chemicals are in fact bad for you because there's no proof of it, as mentioned elsewhere in this comment thread, and by his own admission these are the exact same chemicals you'd find in oranges anyway

Re: The Secret Ingredient in Orange Juice

#165

Post by mediumdeviation »

kobayashi wrote: post #29
gruez wrote: post #10

> I’m not questioning the health or merit of added chemicals (“natural” or “synthetic”) Oh good, I thought you were afraid of chemicals >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. Wait what? I thought you weren't questioning the health or merit chemicals? People like orange juice (more…

I don't think he was questioning the health or safety of the additives, I think he was questioning the nutritious list of oranges or the foodstuffs that lack flavor. This would make sense given that humans have evolved to taste and enjoy flavours based upon the nutritiousness of that food.

Human beings evolved senses to perceive food which will aid in the individual's survival on the plains of the African savannah. There's no reason to believe that food perceived to be flavorful necessarily contains the correct nutrients for us, and (more importantly) contain them in the right amounts. Otherwise if we can all just trust our taste buds then nutritionists would be all out of jobs.

Re: The Secret Ingredient in Orange Juice

#167

Post by colechristensen »

MrTonyD wrote: post #131
beloch wrote: post #87

"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 cu…

Well, my wife works for Martinelli's - and it definitely doesn't take 2+ apples to make a cup of apple juice. (I'm not saying that apple juice should be your first choice.) They also carefully monitor "brix", which is the amount of sugar in their juice. They have acceptable targets for that as well as other measures (including John Martinelli tasting the product almost daily.) Personally, I use my Vitamix to make my…

>But I'm skeptical about the "juice is bad" meme.

The problem is that people can't separate an unbalanced diet from the foods that are throwing them out of balance.

Juice is fine and great. Getting most of your calories from simple sugars like all too many people do (and like juice provides)is bad. Replacing sodas with fruit juice doesn't do much to make your diet better. You should balance your sugars, fats, and proteins.

Re: The Secret Ingredient in Orange Juice

#168

Post by kristianp »

cubano wrote: post #32

If you don't care for how your OJ is processed, you should really dislike that bottle of wine, too. Sulfur Dioxide The most widely used wine additive. It kills microbes and prevents oxidation. Few vintners dare to ­bottle a wine without it, but overuse can make a vino stink like burnt matches. Ammonium Salts A touch of diammonium phosphate revives dying yeast and keeps it from producing too much sulfur. Water If a ba…

And yet the only other ingredient seen on wine bottles is a warning that it contains Sulfur, from memory.

Re: The Secret Ingredient in Orange Juice

#169

Post by jakejake »

Regardless of how you feel about additives, healthiness of juice or whatever, you should at least want your food labels to be honest and accurate. To me that's really what I take away from food posts about ingredients, GMOs, etc.

Re: The Secret Ingredient in Orange Juice

#170

Post by MrTonyD »

eru wrote: post #155
el_duderino wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you ask your wife what the stuff that appears to be floating in my Martinelli apple juice is? It's a cloud looking like substance in my juice. Does that mean it's been sitting too long? Fermented apple by chance? Smells almost like alcohol when opening it.

I only ever buy cloudy apple juice. Or is there something else going on in Martinelli?

Martinelli's uses a very fine filter for their juice - some juicers don't filter their juice (often because they want it to help define their brand - as unfiltered and natural.) Having heard a lot of stories about food production in general - you should try to choose a manufacturer that you trust. (For any food product, not just apple juice.) There are an incredible number of things which must be monitored and which can (and do) go wrong.
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