Squeeze an Orange or Squeeze the Earth?

Thinking of having a glass of orange juice?  Think again, writes young AIDer Sreshta Appalabattula who found out there is much more than meets the ingredient list.  

Put down your cup of store-bought “100% fresh” labeled orange juice and pay undivided attention! You are probably thinking that the juice you’re about to drink is squeezed oranges poured into the can. It’s not. Here’s what happens from the time oranges are plucked to being juice in your cup…

Oranges are harvested only in few places. Florida and California are two such places in America. So, most oranges take time to reach the juice factory. By the time they reach the destination, some of them would have been spoiled. The factory workers put all the spoiled and good oranges into a huge deoxidizing tank. This machine squeezes the oranges till the pulp is out and sucks out natural flavor producing chemicals. Then, the orange peels are put in the grinder till they become pulp. This pulp is added into the juice along with immense amounts of sugar.

Artificial flavor packs, made by perfume companies and ethyl butyrate, a synthesized chemical that gives the taste of a freshly squeezed orange, are added to this deoxidized juice. After that, chemical preservatives are added to extend the life. Some of these chemicals potentially cause allergic reactions in kids. This juice is packaged into plastic bottles and is ready to be shipped; again.

The juice bottles that reach the stores are stocked for up to sixty days. To lure people to buy this so-called “fresh” toxic juice, pretty ads are aired in television, radio, newspapers, and magazines. Labels cannot be trusted when it comes to food products. Products that are labeled “100% juice” typically have orange juice plus chemicals extracted from different fruits to give it special flavor.  If the juice is labeled “no sugar added,” instead of adding sugar, manufacturers will add artificial sweeteners that are worse than sugar. Similarly, if a label says “organic”, the food is likely to be 95%, not 100% organic because the government allows a legal amount of food that’s non-organic. So, we are being misled by these ads and labeling, also everyone is busy these days so they don’t take time to learn what is in the food they are buying.

The final destination of the juice is your fridge where it lasts up to 3 more weeks. Ironically, freshly squeezed orange juice without any additives can only last for 2 or 3 days. But, the juice in your cup is 9 weeks old by now!

Pollution. Deoxidization. Toxins. Preservatives. Decomposition. Extended stock time. This is the journey of the juice in your cup and the impact to the earth and the environment all along! I hope you’ll rethink next time you go to the juice section in your local grocery store. Here is my question to you; would you rather squeeze an orange or squeeze the earth?