This is of special interest to the Ray Peat fans, who drink OJ, but even for those who don't it's a warning about what happens with our food!
http://gizmodo.com/5825909/orange-j...te-like-oranges

I knew the "healthy food" isn't healthy, and now it isn't even food!

Gizmodo excerpted that from the original source at Food Renegade. Here's the whole article. Looks like it might be a fairly good blog.

http://www.foodrenegade.com/secret-...r-orange-juice/

Thanks for the pointer Nancy. The original is better yet!

Many years ago (nearly 25 now) my son and I went on a vacation to Mexico with a girlfriend of mine and her son. My friend was half Mexican (though her Mexican dad died when she was very young, so she grew up speaking no Spanish) and we stayed with a Mexican cousin of hers who lived in Guadalajara. What an experience. My friend, as I said, spoke no Spanish, and her cousin spoke no English, so I had to be the translator for everyone and it made my head hurt!

Anyway, these cousins were pretty wealthy, and they had maids and a cook and a laundress, etc. Every morning for breakfast the cook would take oranges and make fresh squeezed orange juice. And that stuff was *awesome*. I have never had anything that tasted so delicious! Wow, it blew me away. I've never liked orange juice, but that fresh squeezed juice was like nothing I've ever had in my life. I looked forward to that every day. And it was so wonderful that it made commericial OJ, which I never liked anyway, seem even that much worse when I got home. And now I know why!

and this is surprising?

I am not at all surprised. How else would we get OJ when oranges are out of season?

I guess I just assumed that oranges were always in season somewhere in the world these days. Or else the manufacturers just froze the juice and defrosted it as they needed it for the stores. But I find it fascinating to see what sorts of things can be added to food that doesn't even need to be on the label! I had read this about skim milk before - about how artificial emulsifiers and food dye were added to it, so that it didn't have then thin watery look that true skim milk has. And that didn't need to be on the label either.

I don't drink OJ, and I don't drink skim milk, so neither affect me personally. But it just makes me wonder what other foods I'm eating that are treated in a similar fashion. "What you don't know can't hurt you" is a common saying. But I can't help think if there are things I don't know that CAN hurt me.

I'm moving to Florida later this month, which means I'll lose my current source of delicious raw milk and cream, and pastured eggs. That "fresh from the cow" stuff is just amazingly awesome, just as "fresh from the tree(or bush or whatever)" fruit is.

We drink fresh orange juice, but when the local oranges are in season. Buy them by the box, Washingtons, Torroc or Sanguinne, (blood oranges ).I saw a great tip on a site, if you use an electric juicer, buy one with all plastic and not with a stainless steel " nose " . With the small amount of heat that is generated, and if your an orange juice family, your taking in toxins. Strain it before drinking as the bits give you tummy ache. You don't need the bits for fibre or anything else.Sweeten as you like and also its nice diluted with sparkling water. And yes, its the nicest orange juice ever.....

When I drank orange juice, the more I drank, the more I wanted.

Now I know that means something should be crossed off my list.

Food Renegade is on my regular reading list. And as for orange juice, it's like crack to me. I used to drink it by the gallon. Now I wont touch the stuff. An occasional whole orange, sure, but no juice.

I never did much care for it, and never really drank it. But lately I have been enjoying a whole clementine from time to time! Why drink juice when you can eat the real fruit instead?

Maybe everyone already knows this, but whole oranges, as you buy them in the store, have been abraded, bleached, dyed (orange), and sealed.

Anyone who has ever owned an orange tree knows that individual oranges vary a bit in coloration...not so at the supermarket.

I never much cared for orange juice but grapefruit juice is another story - I can guzzle that down by the gallon. Fortunately, I haven't drunk juice of any kind for many, many years because of the (natural) sugar in it.

I don't drink juice so the question is academic to me, but does this mean that the frozen orange juice concentrate would be a healthier way to go? Do they freeze the stuff without tinkering with it too much?