Arsenic in fruit juice. WHY???

Post Reply New Topic

I just heard on TV a minute ago that bottled apple and grape juice contain higher than normal amounts of arsenic.
Well,I guess that's it. There is absolutely NO food left on the planet that won't poison you. Of course they said not to panic because there isn't enough arsenic in the juice to poison you. Oh yeah right, they're just saying that so thousands of people won't be rushing to the understaffed, overcrowded emergency rooms. Everything my parents told me was good for me and encouraged me to eat and drink when I was a kid now full of chemicals and toxins and e.coli and DEATH. If I get sick with anything now, it will be, literally, something I ate. I will get cancer and other horrible diseases from "healthy" foods and will turn to "junk" food. It may also poison, but I'd rather eat deadly food that tastes good than eat like a rabbit and die anyway.

This occurs because arsenic is a naturally occurring chemical in many fruits such as apples. It is in small amounts however that will not kill you. The benefit/risk ratio is still good for these fruits. Why these articles do not say that, I don't know.

I believe its mostly apple juice and many brands are fine. If your looking for a list there is one on dr.oz's website.

There are also naturally occurring forms of formaldehyde and cyanide in consumables/products. There is usually very little reason to be concerned about these, though; as long as you eat balanced and aren't gorging yourself on these foods your body won't be processing enough of them to cause harm. Your body -can- handle certain levels of these chemicals, which, while not much, is enough to cover the very small amounts in natural foods. What you -should- worry about are the processed foods laced with paragraphs of preservatives that constitute the main portion of many people's diets. These are far more poisonous to you.

I believe the media may point out those chemicals in natural foods as an attempt to justify eating these artificial foods, in a sort of "Well natural has bad things, too, so we may as well eat what we want to". It's a mind game to divert your sense of self-responsibility.

I don't drink fruit juice and I wouldn't give it to my hypothetical kids either.

Most juice is full of sugar, and many of the vitamins in fruits are found in the skin and flesh, which is lost when you turn it into juice.

Oh, and they dump high fructose corn syrup into everything these days.

Fruit juice = ick. Arsenic non-withstanding.

The benefits of consuming apples far outweighs their arsenic content.

But this story does leave open an important issue: consuming fresh fresh fruit is preferable to consuming juice. Fibre is the biggest loss from consuming juice rather than whole fruit, but there are some marginal losses in nutrients.

The bigger concern for me is not the presence of Arsenic (particularly organic arsenic), but rather the excessive degree to which children are consuming juice as their beverage of choice. Notionally, juice presents nutritional benefits over other flavoured beverages, but it is a significant contributor to childhood obesity. A glass of water and an apple should always be preferred to a glass of apple juice.

Redacted

Fun fact! Cyanide is naturally present in nearly 1500 types of plants.

Including:
Peaches
Apples
Cherries
Almonds
Peas

Moral of the story - if you aren't dead from it yet, you won't be just because it's been pointed out to you.

In other news all bananas contain potassium-40, a radioactive isotope. Oh noes!

This is a little OT, but it reminds me of a drug a relative was on in the hospital once (some people read the bible at the hospital; I read medical textbooks). It was called "nitroprusside" which, chemically, is a metal ion with 5 cyanide groups and 1 nitric oxide group bound to it. The nitric oxide separates in the blood and relaxes blood vessels which reduces blood pressure. The cyanides are there to help make it easier for the nitric oxide to separate (I think).

Eventually, though, the cyanides also separate.

Anyway, the point is that the book said that that is ok, because the human body can withstand a certain small amount of cyanide for a certain amount of time with no problems. There's a substance in the blood which neutralizes cyanide and so there's no trouble until or unless the body's supply of that substance gets used up.

"Sodium Nitroprusside"

Redacted

That’s the reality of life; people will do everything for living whatever the cost will be. It’s one of the most harmful elements. We can’t stop these acts so all we have to do is be more cautious in what we are eating. Why are they putting arsenic in foods anyway?