There's OJ and there's OJ...

Photo courtesy of manwithface's photostream

When is the last time you bought fresh oranges to squeeze for juice?

I remember not too long ago some grocery stores had machines in the produce section that would cut and squeeze fresh oranges or grapefruit on demand, for fresh juice. I used to be able to buy fresh orange or grapefruit juice (fresh-squeezed, not pasteurized, not from concentrate, never frozen) in the grocery stores. Not anymore.

This information below is from an article published by the Weston A Price Foundation, "Dirty Secrets of the Food Processing Industry"

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"The FDA has decreed that we can no longer buy raw juice, because it might be a source of pathogens. But it might surprise you to know that they have found fungus that is resistant to pressure and heat in the processed juices. One study found that 17% of Nigerian packages of orange juice and 20% of mango and tomato juices contained heat resistant fungi. They also found E. coli in the orange juice that was pressure resistant and had survived pasteurization. So there is plenty of danger from contamination from pasteurized juices.

A quote from Processed and Prepared Foods states that "a new orange juice processing plant is completely automated and can process up to 1,800 tons [3,600,000 pounds] of oranges per day to produce frozen concentrate, single strength juice, oil extracted from the peel, and cattle feed."

In the processing, the whole orange is put into the machine. Enzymes are added to get as much oil as possible out of the skin. Oranges are a very heavily sprayed crop. These sprays are cholinesterase inhibitors, which are real neurotoxins. When they put the oranges in the vats and squeeze them, all those pesticides go into the juice.

A study carried out in Hawaii found that consumption of fruit and fruit juices was the number one dietary factor for the development of Alzheimer's disease. The researchers speculated that the real culprit was the pesticides used in fruit—and concentrated in the juices due to modern processing techniques.

Another study shows just how toxic and damaging these juices are to teeth. They found that rats had more tooth decay from these commercial juices than they did from soda pop, which is loaded with sugar. One more thing about processed orange juice. Have you ever wondered why processed orange juice stays cloudy, why the solids do not settle? This is because soy protein combined with soluble pectin is added, and this keeps the juice permanently cloudy. It might be interesting to know, for those of you who are allergic to soy."

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I read somewhere else that OJ (because of the added soy proteins) also gives you a dose of goitrogens (thyroid inhibitors) with every dose of Vitamin C. That may not affect healthy folks, but those of us with thyroid problems are at risk.