Why Bottled Juices Don’t Contribute To Your Daily Fruit And Veg Intake

Preparing fresh juices is a bit of a mission, I will admit. You have to make sure your fridge is stocked with the right fruits and vegetables, you have to set up the juicer, you have to put the ingredients through the juicer, and then you have to clean the juicer – all this work for one glass of fresh juice. It’s no wonder many people opt for the much simpler route of drinking juice fresh from a bottle. If you’re one of these people, you’re probably going to hate me for saying this but …drinking bottled juice does not compare even one drop to drinking freshly made juices.

I have to bite my tongue whenever people tell me that they are too busy to make juices themselves – and then they proudly hold up the bottle of V8 veggie juice they drink as, what they believe is, an adequate substitute. This is nowhere near the same thing. Not even close.

Dr Joseph Mercola agrees with me:
“I believe that fruit juice and pasteurized milk are two of the most misunderstood foods in our culture,” Dr Mercola writes on his website. “Most people believe they are health foods, while the polar opposite is true. They tend to be pernicious fluids that worsen most people’s health.”

Bottled Juice vs. Fresh Juice:
They may be derived from the same original source, but a lot happens to bottled juice after it is squeezed out of its fruit or vegetable and before it is poured out of the bottle and into your glass. Bottled juice has been heated and pasteurized  so pretty much all of its natural enzymes, vitamins and minerals are completely depleted. It has also had preservatives, colors and artificial and refined sugars added to it – rendering it even worse for your health.

“Nearly every canned or bottled commercial juice, on the other hand, are actually worse than soda, because a glass of juice is loaded with fructose, and a lot of the antioxidants are lost,” writes Dr Mercola.

On the other hand, juice that comes straight out of your juicer is packed with live enzymes, vitamins and minerals. Carrot juices are full of the nutrient of the moment – betacarotene (which converts into vitamin A in the body), and green juices give us amazing doses of chlorophyll. Freshly made juices are alkalizing and they provide our bodies with intense hydration and oxygenated cells and bloodstream. To get the most benefits out of drinking fresh juice, it’s best to drink them straight from the juicer. If this isn’t possible, store them in a dark, airtight bottle or container (we use flasks or Mason jars) and open when you’re ready to drink. Remember that light, air and heat destroy most, if not all, of the available nutrients.

The Vitamin Water deception:
This is quite possibly one of the most misleading marketing campaigns ever. Not only does Vitamin Water not provide your body with needed vitamins, but it is actually just as bad as drinking a soft drink. Vitamin Water is mostly just “sugar water”, with added synthetic chemicals and no actual fruit. Vitamin Water is basically just “non-carbonated soda” and it has been said to contribute to weight gain, diabetes, obesity and other diseases.