New report finds heavy metals in 45 popular fruit juices

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Source: CBS News

Some popular fruit juices may contain heavy metals, according to a new report out Wednesday morning. Consumer Reports tested 45 packaged fruit juices for heavy metals, like lead, arsenic, and cadmium and found measurable levels in every product. Long-term exposure to these metals could cause some serious health risks, like kidney disease and certain types of cancer.

Heavy metals are substances that make their way into food because they occur naturally in the air, water and soil. They can also wind up in food during the manufacturing and packaging processes, reports CBS News' Anna Werner.

While improvements have been made since Consumer Reports last tested juice products eight years ago, they now recommend parents give their children less juice.

-snip-

Consumer Reports is recommending parents lower the amount of juice they give their kids. "So they should be concerned but don't panic … frequent exposure to these heavy metals through the juice is the concern," James Dickerson said. The Juice Products Association, whose board of directors includes executives from PepsiCo, Welch's and other juice brands whose products were tested, said they haven't seen the full study but called the results "unfounded" and told CBS News they are committed to providing "safe" and "nutritious" products that meet FDA standards. They also said that there is "no scientific evidence" indicating that trace levels of heavy metals have caused any negative health outcomes.


Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/health-news/new-report-finds-heavy-metals-in-45-popular-fruit-juices/ar-BBSWwcg?li=BBnb7Kz

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Unfortunately the article doesn't list which ones.

[Initech]

1. This is what happens when we don't regulate anything.

We get contamination in all the food we eat and drink. And if we further deregulate businesses, expect more of this shit to happen.

[aggiesal]

8. Word parsing here ...

Regulations = Protections.

This is what happens when we don't regulate anything.

This is what happens when we don't protect anything.

[zentrum]

9. Wish the Democrats would

Last edited Thu Jan 31, 2019, 10:11 AM - Edit history (1)

.....use this word as well as calling "entitlements", earned benefits.

[aggiesal]

17. I actually don't mind entitlements ....

It's exactly what it is.
When anyone speaks about entitlement negatively, I just tell them,
"But you paid into it, you're entitled to that money/program/benefit."

[zentrum]

27. Yes, it does mean that, but

….it registers as "elite" to those who don't know better. At least let's get the Dems to say "earned entitlements". Every time. "Earned entitlements."

[aggiesal]

28. I agree, ...

so next time I run across someone who uses the entitlement disparagingly,
I will use earned entitlement, "... you earned that entitlement!"
I will also try to educate those who don't know better, that it's not elite,
it's every day common citizens like you, me and the don't-know-better.

They've already tried and made the word liberal, a pejorative, we can't let "them"
take away what is good with our system of government, including the word
entitlement.

[zentrum]

31. That's it! JFK

....once listed all the things that a liberal stiood and for and then said, "If that's what a Liberal is, then I'm a proud Liberal".

[TexasBushwhacker]

29. Not to mention, I have no problem with being "entitled" to

Food
A decent place to live
Healthcare

How can we be the greatest country on the planet and not have the basic needs of our citizens taken care of adequately?

[UpInArms]

2. Here's a link to the Consumer Reports study

Arsenic and Lead Are in Your Fruit Juice: What You Need to Know

Lots more info there

[ancianita]

3. The original Consumer Reports article did list which ones. Here they are:

For CR’s current project, we looked at 45 juices in four flavors: apple (22), fruit juice blends (13), grape (7), and pear (3). Most were from concentrate, meaning that all water was removed from the pressed fruit for transport, then added back in at the factory.

Twenty-four national, store, and private-label brands were represented: 365 Everyday Value (Whole Foods), Apple & Eve, Big Win (Rite Aid), Capri Sun, Clover Valley (Dollar General), Great Value (Walmart), Gerber, Good2Grow, Gold Emblem (CVS), Goya, Honest Kids, Juicy Juice, Looza, Market Pantry (Target), Minute Maid, Mott’s, Nature’s Own, Ocean Spray, Old Orchard, R.W. Knudsen, Simply Balanced (Target), Trader Joe’s, Tree Top, and Welch’s.

We purchased three samples of each product from retailers across the country. (Our findings were a spot check of the market and should not be used to draw definitive conclusions about specific brands.)

Among the findings:

• Every product had measurable levels of at least one of these heavy metals: cadmium, inorganic arsenic, lead, or mercury.

• Twenty-one (47 percent) of the 45 juices had concerning levels of cadmium, inorganic arsenic, and/or lead. (None contained concerning levels of mercury.)

• Seven of those 21 juices could harm children who drink 4 ounces (½ cup) or more a day; nine of them pose risks to kids at 8 ounces (1 cup) or more a day.

• Five of the products with elevated levels are juice boxes or pouches ranging from 4 to 6.75 ounces. These pose a risk to a child who drinks more than one box or pouch per day.

https://www.consumerreports.org/food-safety/arsenic-and-lead-are-in-your-fruit-juice-what-you-need-to-know/

The report says "there is "no scientific evidence" indicating that trace levels of heavy metals have caused any negative health outcomes" only because no research has been conducted on any health outcomes.

We can't know outcomes if we don't do studies to measure them.

[Chiyo-chichi]

4. SMH. A whole generation, including my children, grew up with Capri Sun juice pouches

and Juicy Juice boxes in their lunch boxes... and at home! Deregulation, indeed.

[ancianita]

5. My grandson, too.

[Chiyo-chichi]

7. They were so convenient to pop in a lunch box, and supposedly beneficial... so I thought.

[underpants]

26. Thanks.

[IronLionZion]

6. I bought a juicer years ago

and bought organic vegetables and fruit and juiced it myself. Sure it sucks to clean the juicer, but it's got to be better than the bottled stuff.

[Cold War Spook]

10. We bought one not too long ago.

It is more than a juicer although 80% of what we use it for is pure fruit juice and smoothies, nothing out of a package. It also grinds whole cuts of meat that have been cut into 1 inch cubes. I like it for making the dough for pies.

[Honeycombe8]

11. I don't recommend juices at all, anyway. They're almost pure sugar...

with the fiber and other benefits of the actual fruit removed.

[JHan]

18. yup, +++

[CTyankee]

19. Oh, but delicious! I love my glass of OJ to wash down my pills in the a.m.

however, hubby and I eat fresh fruit for dessert every night. We get it fresh cut up from the
supermarket. I eat fruit for lunch every day. I know it has sugar but it's good sugar, right?

[Honeycombe8]

22. The sugar eaten with fiber doesn't act on the body the same way as liquid sugars w/no fiber.

OJ is very high in sugar that is put into your body in liquid form. That's the kind of sugar that the body reacts wildly to.

I love sugar and eat candy sometimes. A lot of it on those occasions. Then not again for a long time. I used to eat sugar often, but I got control over that gradually.

But I love fruit! I eat fruit every day. Yum! It's full of anti-oxidants and vitamins, low in calories, has fiber. Some fruits have lower sugar than others.

I gave up fruit juices decades ago. I'd rather eat an orange than drink it. I love oranges.

[summer_in_TX]

23. I've been in the pre-diabetic range on blood sugar.

More than one doctor or nurse practitioner has advised me to cut back on fresh fruit.

The problem is that they have all been bred selectively to greatly increase their sugar content. While they are not without health benefits, too much sugar can be problematic. I really, really do not want to become a full-blown diabetic and live with all that is involved with that. Especially with the unconscionable prices for insulin that Big Pharma are now charging for a month's supply.

The problem is I've had no luck in convincing my husband, who loves to cook and prepares all our meals, to reduce the fruit. He is so completely convinced that fruit is nothing but healthy. So there is always anywhere from 2-4 different kinds of fresh fruit as part of breakfast everyday, and sometimes other meals.

Since I'm blessed to have him cooking for me, I try to mostly eat what he fixes. Don't want to push him to give it up! (No one, least of all me, really wants to eat my cooking.

Bad news about the heavy metals in fruit juice! Cadmium is carcinogenic, if I recall correctly. Maybe some of the others they found.

[Honeycombe8]

24. I probably eat too much fruit.

I don't have a problem with glucose...yet. But I should probably cut down. As for medical providers, they are not nutritionists. I've heard misinformation from them before, although I'm sure they must know what makes their patients react.

They are right that fruit has sugars. But, which food has a high glycemic number can be deceptive.

White bread (70 or so) has a higher Glycemic index number than sugar (around 68). A carrot (in the high 40s) has a higher GI than an apple (high 30s). Starchy foods are among the worst (white bread, popcorn, potato, rice). Also, the fiber in the fruits slows down digestion and lessens the effect of the sugars. As does eating protein with them. (But I guess you know all this, since you are pre-diabetic!)

You have a chance to roll the pre-diabetes back, is what I've read. To stop it from progressing, and to roll it back, by a change in lifestyle. My brother has diabetes. When he was pre-diabetic, he took medicine for it, but I didn't notice that he changed his lifestyle, so it progressed to diabetes. I was hoping it wouldn't.

The problem with foods in the U.S. has gotten so bad. Every year something comes to light about some processed food that is harmful, whether it's people dying from lettuce, or being contaminated from orange juice. What the heck is going on?

[shanti]

32. You're so right about oj

Juice is terrible for diabetes. It's been years since I had a glass of fruit juice. I do, however, love mandarines and clementines, one per day while in season (and often when not). The fiber makes a difference in slowing down the sugar introduced into your bloodstream. There's a reason they tell you to drink a glass of oj if a diabetic is having a low glucose experience!

[Bayard]

25. I do the same

I'm a big fan of Simply Orange with high pulp.

[appleannie1943]

12. Why publish a report like that without letting the public know which juices to avoid?

[Mustellus]

16. Cause....

.. they'd get sued for libel.

[LiberalArkie]

13. I would like them to grab some apples and oranges and juice them and then test.

[PSPS]

14. LOL. Industry mouthpiece says they "haven't seen the full study but called the results 'unfounded'"

I guess they were wearing Carnac's turban.

[Mustellus]

15. But you can measure....

Parts per trillion.

I quit the Sierra club over mercury in swordfish. It turned out there was mercury there at parts per billion. But there was mercury in wheat flour at parts per trillion.

What that means? If you eat 1000 times more bread than swordfish, then you are getting more mercury from your bread than your fish.

Also.... mercury levels in fish specimens in the Smithsonian.. from pre-industrial America, were also at parts per billion of mercury.
The famous case of mercury in fish in Japan? A nearly closed bay with a fishing village on one side, and a mercury refinery on the other. Not typical.

So. when this came out, the Sierra club realized that it was the background levels of mercury that was being measured. But they had printed the books.. .so... they published the books, knowing their science was bad. Can't not make a profit there...

[angrychair]

20. Not discounting your point

But CR actually qualified their points (from a post above):

findings:

• Every product had measurable levels of at least one of these heavy metals: cadmium, inorganic arsenic, lead, or mercury.

• Twenty-one (47 percent) of the 45 juices had concerning levels of cadmium, inorganic arsenic, and/or lead. (None contained concerning levels of mercury.)

• Seven of those 21 juices could harm children who drink 4 ounces (½ cup) or more a day; nine of them pose risks to kids at 8 ounces (1 cup) or more a day.

• Five of the products with elevated levels are juice boxes or pouches ranging from 4 to 6.75 ounces. These pose a risk to a child who drinks more than one box or pouch per day.

[cannabis_flower]

21. Most of us shouldn't..

Be drinking fruit juices anyway. You are taking a perfectly nutritious fruit and removing all the fiber and drinking only the sugary sweet part. This is only marginal better than drinking sugar water.

[TexasBushwhacker]

30. I agree

As much as I hate the bottled water trend, at least people are turning to water more as their drink of choice.

[CTyankee]

33. I am liking flavored seltzer more and more. It's ruby red grapefruit flavor is delightful and

very refreshing. No sugar, which is wise.

[truthisfreedom]

34. Eat your fruit. Don't drink your fruit.

You need all of the fruit, not just the liquid sugar.