Important information re: apple juice!!!!!!

[DammitJanet]

I heard something yesterday on Dr. Oz

Arsenic has been found in Apple Juice! In alarming amounts. Now there is arsenic in our drinking water and they say its an acceptable level but still, when you think about the fact that parents give kids apple juice by the gallons thinking it is so good for them and it is the second most given drink next to milk, well...think about how much arsenic kids are getting!

The worst offender is Gerber with 36 parts parts per billion!!!! Think about it, thats the one that every one feeds their babies first. As pretty much newborns. How awful...brains still developing by leaps and bounds and arsenic is going in to lower IQs. No wonder Cory is the way he is! He couldnt drink formula so he drank juice. Ugh.

Then came Juicy Juice, Apple and Eve, but the best was Minute Maid. If you want to use Apple Juice, use that one. Only 3 parts per billion.

I am just so shocked really...and of course, this is a China and Argentina thing. If you look at the cans or boxes closely, you will see that most things will say that the juice is coming from china. But also apple juice is used to sweeten so many things...cereals, baked goods,etc.

 

[Jody]

Dr. Oz was on Good Morning America this morning and someone, I don't remember who he was but was just reeming him for being irresponsible. The guy said that their is a good arsenic and a bad arsenic, and that Dr. Oz did not do enough research. I respect Dr. Oz, though he has given a lot of good information. I think we will here more about this issue very soon.

 

[hearts and roses]

I wonder what the levels were in, if any tests were even done, organic apple juices.

 

[Mamaof5]

Oh lord, first, apple seeds naturally contain arsenic. It's the main source of arsenic for lab use isn't it? I think all this is is a propaganda hyped up media thing to scare people.

 

[donna723]

Apparently this has kicked up quite a contraversy and Dr.Oz was basically accused of being an alarmist over this. I'm sure there will be a lot more on the news about it and it will be interesting to see how it all comes out.

 

[InsaneCdn]

If you want to be safe, stick with "north american" apple juice... stuff grown and processed in Canada and USA, in particular.

Or... grow your own apples, and press your own juice.
(takes too many years to grow the tree... will have to leave that idea to the kids)

 

[AnnieO]

LOL - we don't do a lot of apple juice because of the sugar+acid content. J loves it, but we water it down (which tastes nasty to me).

And, yes, apple seeds do contain quite a bit of arsenic... So... Eat an apple, poison yourself?

An apple a day does what?!

 

[KTMom91]

I didn't see Dr. Oz's original announcement, but saw him on GMA getting his butt kicked.

 

[Mamaof5]

Step To: Where do you think Walt Disney's idea came from for the poison apple in Snow White? LOL This will be interesting indeed to watch play out.

 

[skeeter]

Just don't eat peach pits - then you get cyanide instead of arsenic.

 

[keista]

Actually apple seeds contain cyanide. So do many other fruit seeds including cherry pits, peach pits and apricot seeds. there have also been studies done that eating these fruit seeds in moderate quantities can actually prevent or cure cancer. An FDA unapproved drug called Laetrile is made from crushed apricot pits.

You can find the test results as well as communication from the FDA disputing Dr Oz's "independent lab" tests.

http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/fda-statement-arsenic-apple-juice?page=3#copy


I've only seen one of his shows, and I was less than pleased. It wasn't sensationalist **** it was pedantic idiocy. Now I have another reason not to like him. Again, shock value sells.

 

[DammitJanet]

i dont like him but i was more than a bit alarmed by this. oh well. still not feeding anymore kids apple juice, sorry.

 

[InsaneCdn]

Janet -
The way the arsenic gets into the juice is by trying to squeeze the apples too hard to get every last drop of juice.
Quality processors do not do this.
China? I'd expect them to be doing this.

So... Don't know if you can get "SunRype" brand down there - but it is 100% Canadian, a top-quality producer.

 

[DammitJanet]

The way I understood it was the pesticides on the apples from China and Argentina which makes sense. Not seeds. It also makes sense that different companies have differing levels. If it was seeds, then the levels would tend to be basically the same in all makes of juice. I am seriously upset over Gerber but thats just fine if I am the only one.

 

[keista]

If you read the reports, you'd see that they took very few samples. All the follow up samples tested by both the companies and the FDA showed much lower amounts. This "independent lab" seemed to be reporting artificially high levels. There is also a distinction between naturally occurring arsenic and man made arsenic - the latter being the highly toxic substance, however there was no such distinction in the "independent lab" tests, and that could be causing the high results.

 

[HaoZi]

I like Oz, missed the episode. There are many plants we eat certain parts but not others because they produce poisons. A good example is how people extoll the value of castor oil while ignoring or not knowing that ricin is made from the same bean. Tomatoes are in the deadly nightshade family.

 

[flutterby]

I would rather be safe than sorry. The FDA isn't entirely unbiased as they take money from the companies whose products are being tested.

Just so you all know...I've been taking notes about all the various seeds.

 

[susiestar]

This has popped up about every 10-15 years and each time what we learn is that it really is not a problem at that level. Yes, it is there, but it is in a lot of things and is in the seeds. It gets into the juice NOT because they are dumping it int here, but because the seeds are not out when the juice is made. In fact, I know quite a few people who had juicers and followed directions and put apples in with-o taking out the cores/seeds and it was found that that had much higher levels of arsenic than any commercial product. This was from a study done by some college students when I was in college and this hit the media and was a big deal for a few weeks.

In general, our bodies easily filter out that small amt of arsenic. Drinking gallons of it isn't good for you, or really even much better than drinking soda. But to do long term damage you would need to drink so much of it each day for a very long period of time that you would have no time to do much but drink applejuice while sitting on the potty for it to come out.

For those with kidney or liver problems, etc... this is a big deal, but the rest of us have bodies that can handle this. They can also handle the trace amounts of cyanide that are in apple seeds without any problem. (Yes, there is cyanide in apple seeds and they are not pulled out or not all pulled out when juice is made, but again the levels are so small that it is no problem for your body unless you have certain health issues.)

It is wise, if you can afford it, to get the type of juice that is the healthiest, of course. But you have to weigh the risks and benefits like everything else.

 

[skeeter]

Janet - if you are really concerned, and you can point me to the original studies the good Dr. referenced, I'd be happy to look them over. I do this as part of my job. I'm co-author on a couple of papers like this. One has to look at methods used, number of samples, etc. to understand if this is an actual "issue" or not.
And, as already stated, the way the juice is processed (cold pressed, cleaned, etc.) is also important. Does the study reference the method the juice is prepared in and correlates that? There is much more to reading a scientific report than "ohmygawdtheresstuffinit!" I'm not criticizing you or your belief, but it's the "popular" media that creates this feeding frenzy and it drives me nuts (and has made me do a lot of stupid work over my career). Look up alar, ethylene dibromide, acrylamide - I've had to do work for all of these "scares".