Attention: Read this before you have another glass of orange juice

You're in your local supermarket standing in front of a wide selection of fruit juices. Which one are you going to choose? The ‘100% pure juice' or the ‘not made from concentrate'? Both are very healthy options, right? Think again. Read on to find out why orange juice isn't all it's cracked out to be.

If you love orange juice, you may not like what you’re about to read.

The truth is‘100% pure juice’ or the ‘not made from concentrate’ juice isn’t that good for you.

Here’s why orange juice could be bad for your health

Most store-bought fruit juices have a secret ingredient that doesn’t resemble anything found in nature.

Take orange juice for instance.

Making a glass of orange juice is fairly straight forward, right? You pick the oranges squeeze them, put the juice in a glass and you’re done.

“But this isn’t the case if you produce orange juice on a massive scale, in which case, there is an important in-between stage, which is kept secret from you,” writes Francois Lubbe of the Health Sciences Institute.

You see, for big companies, once the oranges are squeezed, the juice is stored in giant holding tanks and the oxygen is removed from the juice to allow the liquid to keep longer (for up to a year) without spoiling.

The only difference is that the liquid you think of as orange juice tastes nothing like the ‘100% pure juice’ that you’d make at home from squeezing fresh oranges.

That’s because when fruit juice makers strip the juice of oxygen, they also strip it of the chemicals that give it flavour.
“This is where that magical secret ingredient makes its entrance: ‘Flavour packs’ to re-flavour the de-oxygenated orange juice,” writes Lubbe.

Flavour packs: The unhealthy secret ingredient in orange juice

These are flavours are uniquely manufactured by ‘flavour companies’ and are added back to the juice to make it taste ‘fresh’.

You’ll be forgiven for not being aware of this as flavour packs aren’t listed as an ingredient on the label because they’re derived from orange essence and oil.

Nothing that’s inside those flavour packs resembles anything found in nature. In fact, they tend to contain high amounts of ethyl butyrate, a synthetic chemical found in the fragrance of fresh squeezed orange juice, writes Lubbe.

That’s not all.

You may have noticed that some orange juices taste different from others. That’s because flavour packs are manufactured to cater for different markets.

For instance, juices sold in Brazil or Mexico will have other chemicals in them, like valencine, which makes it taste different because the people in those countries have different palates.

Clever, isn’t it?

It’s not!

It’s downright deceptive, especially if that same chemical-induced juice is sold as ‘100% pure’.

So next time you’re in your local supermarket, think about how the ‘100% pure juice’ you’re about to buy is made.

Tags: fruit juice, how fruit juice is made, flavour packs, orange juice, chemical-induced juice