I am not entirely fond of fruits — I am ashamed to say that, being health-conscious and all, but I am not. However, I have been trying to be healthier lately and consume my five-a-day dose of fruits and veggies .

I thought I had reached a brilliant solution that means I won’t have to suffer every day trying to hit my quota of fruits; juice. I decided I am going to drink my food and not eat it — which is wrong on so many levels and we will tell you why in a separate article.

I always disliked orange juice, something about the artificial taste in the available brands made me feel like I was drinking Tang rather than pure juice. After some research, I bought Caesar, which, much like Pure, clearly stated that it had no colors added, no preservatives and no added sugar and that was enough for me to trust it.

The taste was still off-putting, it tasted nothing like the freshly squeezed juice my mother used to prepare for us every morning. So I read into the label some more and it clearly stated that the juice was made from concentrate. I smirked at my cleverness and haughtily told everyone that the juices they’ve been buying, both Pure and Caesar, are made from concentrate like most other Egyptian brands.

So when we were living in London for a while we switched to Tropicana’s juices, “never from concentrate,” they always say. It was complete with pulp and all so I had no reason to doubt it, even though the taste was still a little off. But hey, this juice is never from concentrate.

Upon my return to Egypt I struggled to find anything that is not made from concentrate but failed miserably.

I decided I am not going to be a brat anymore and if I wanted orange juice I will squeeze it myself, especially that unlike other juices, oranges do not need juicers to squeeze.

Needless to say, the taste was drastically different. Needless to say as well, while my precious “not from concentrate” and those from concentrate juices would last the week, all my squeezing labor went to waste a few days after as the juice went bad.

Being the geek that I am, I dove into a juice-research escapade and the horrors I found simply had to be shared. So here is the naked, whole truth about the juices we so gladly gulp thinking we’re good and healthy.

This is not a conspiracy theory, but if every glass of juice tastes the same and if the bottle lasts a year as opposed to the freshly squeezed ones that last a few days, you know something is off.

Never from concentrate

In a revolutionary book titled Squeezed: What you Don’t Know about Orange Juice Alissa Hamilton revealed the truth about the not-from-concentrate juice pioneered by Tropicana.

Oranges go bad, it’s nature and you can’t fight it, unless you’re willing to alter its nature, that is. This is exactly what juice companies do, for them to offer ‘freshly’ squeezed juice without the risk of it going back before hitting grocery shelves, heat the juice to eliminate bacteria then eliminate oxygen. Now we have been offered enough awareness throughout the media to know that cooked fruits and vegetables do not offer the same nutritional benefits raw foods do as they lose a lot of their micronutrients.

But putting this aside, this process also means that flavor and smell are lost, something the companies, bless them, will not want to offer their dear consumers. So to make up for the loss in flavor, they add flavor packets, which are not considered artificial flavors because they claim come from the oranges themselves. These flavor packets are made by fragrance companies and are the reason why every single glass of each brand’s juice tastes the same.

Never from concentrate have proven to be even far worse than their from concentrate counterparts, even though they normally sell for more.

From concentrate

The process of concentration involves either subjecting the juice to extreme heat to evaporate the water or severe pressure, the later being a better option as heat causes nutrition-loss.

Although from concentrate has been proven a healthier alternative than the never from concentrate, it is still nowhere near as nutritional as truly fresh-squeezed juices.

Several macronutrients, sugars and organic acids are lost in the process of concentration through pressure or heat technique. You can immediately tell the difference between a fresh glass of juice and a bottled one, and if the taste is different, nutrients are definitely different as well.

 

Many of the essential antioxidant and vitamins components are volatile and are the first to go in the concentration process and with time. If you leave a glass of juice sitting for a day before consuming it, you know you’ve lost some of the good ingredients, imagine subjecting it to pressure, heat and days of storage before finally drinking it.

Concentrate also never has pulp, which means you get far less fiber than you would drinking fresh juice.

A final tip: Instead of squeezing your fruits, eat them whole, they’re far more filling and offer all the fibers you can get from each piece. But if you must, squeeze the juices yourself and save money and valuable nutritional components you’re losing with the bottled brands.

You can also get fresh juices that are squeezed daily as you’re standing at Metro supermarkets, Oscar and Myriam markets.

Oscar • 7B Intersection of Road 205 with Road 253, Degla, Maadi • Tel. +2 (02) 2519-6488

Myriam Market • 105 Omar Ibn El Khattab Street, Almaza, Heliopolis • Tel. +2 (02) 22907022

Metro Market • 2 Ismail Mohamed Street, Zamalek • Tel. 19619