I guess that's two reasons to not drink juice
February 3, 2019 8:09 AM Subscribe
"Fruit juice’s health halo has slipped in recent years, mainly because it packs a lot of sugar and calories. But there’s another, lesser-known health risk with these juices: They may also contain potentially harmful levels of arsenic, cadmium, and lead, according to new tests from Consumer Reports."
They don't mention orange juice at all, no.
posted by Spathe Cadet at 8:42 AM on February 3, 2019
posted by Spathe Cadet at 8:42 AM on February 3, 2019
Phew, Capri Sun isn't in the 'of concern' list. I remember drinking a lot of those as a kid.
posted by batter_my_heart at 9:22 AM on February 3, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by batter_my_heart at 9:22 AM on February 3, 2019 [2 favorites]
I don't see any comparison to heavy metal levels in either whole fruit or other beverages. And they say that levels have decreased significantly in the last decade. So...shrug?
posted by zeptoweasel at 9:26 AM on February 3, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by zeptoweasel at 9:26 AM on February 3, 2019 [2 favorites]
im gonna level with you folks: i don't fucking care anymore. can fruit juice kill me? tell it to meet me in the pit and take a fucking number.
posted by poffin boffin at 9:34 AM on February 3, 2019 [130 favorites]
posted by poffin boffin at 9:34 AM on February 3, 2019 [130 favorites]
I kept trying to not feel terrible an hour after I drank fruit juice, long after I figure out soda had that problem and banished it into the occasional consumption category. Eventually I figured out there just wasn't such a pre-bottled drink that isn't water because the manufacturers don't care how I feel an hour after drinking it, much less about long term health risks that show up after decades of giving them your money.
posted by wildblueyonder at 10:40 AM on February 3, 2019
posted by wildblueyonder at 10:40 AM on February 3, 2019
The title is slightly misleading as
Overall, heavy metal levels in fruit juices have gone down since CR's last tests. For example, in 2011 just 29 percent of juices we tested had lead levels below 1 ppb, compared with 53 percent now.
Though cadnium levels are about the same now as they were before, or maybe slightly lower.
Anyway, they mention avoiding grape juice in particular, as Welches and the house brands for Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, and Walmart seem to do a little worse on their tests. But, they only tested 3 samples for each brand??? As if they purposefully didn't want to make any kind of definitive statement about brands.
I want to know about grapefruit juice and orange juice.
posted by subdee at 10:44 AM on February 3, 2019 [4 favorites]
Overall, heavy metal levels in fruit juices have gone down since CR's last tests. For example, in 2011 just 29 percent of juices we tested had lead levels below 1 ppb, compared with 53 percent now.
Though cadnium levels are about the same now as they were before, or maybe slightly lower.
Anyway, they mention avoiding grape juice in particular, as Welches and the house brands for Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, and Walmart seem to do a little worse on their tests. But, they only tested 3 samples for each brand??? As if they purposefully didn't want to make any kind of definitive statement about brands.
I want to know about grapefruit juice and orange juice.
posted by subdee at 10:44 AM on February 3, 2019 [4 favorites]
I want that purple stuff.
posted by praemunire at 11:08 AM on February 3, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by praemunire at 11:08 AM on February 3, 2019 [1 favorite]
Some further insights for people who are curious:
They have a similar article about baby food.
In both articles, they do not actually detail the data. This frustrates me, because plenty of people could actually make sense of the data, especially if the table or graph was well-formatted.
This is a source of ongoing frustration to me, because we put out that kind of data for the public at work. It doesn't make sense that they would include a PDF of their testing protocol and their letter to the FDA, but not a data table of the actual results.
Anyway, because I'm curious now and I have the background to understand it, I actually emailed them to see if I could get the data. I wanted to email the author directly, but they didn't seem to make that contact information available. Again, none of this is really a good sign. Not saying there's anything untoward happening, it's just frustratingly opaque for a supposed consumer advocate.
It's pretty well known that apples frequently contain arsenic, so that result is kind of unsurprising. They probably excluded orange juice because it's not generally known to have these contaminants. But they also probably excluded it because the orange juice most people buy in stores is a lie. (Sorry for youtube link, didn't have time to chase down better links. Also, full disclosure, I drink it knowing this anyway.)
Regarding grape juice, it now seems pretty clear that grapes are pretty good at taking up heavy metals from the soil they're in. So it's not just grape juice, but wine and balsamic vinegar also definitely have lead, and I'm sure there's some amount in straight grapes, too. Balsamic vinegar has to be listed under California Proposition 65 as containing lead.
My guess is that concentrates will always be worse for heavy metals...because they're concentrated. You can't filter concentrate without losing flavor, though you could filter the water. Things like apple cider would cease to be the same product after you filtered them also, so you could probably never get the arsenic out of those without growing it in an environment that has none. Functionally impossible to do.
I'll post back if they ever send me the data...but I don't have high expectations.
posted by Strudel at 11:09 AM on February 3, 2019 [8 favorites]
They have a similar article about baby food.
In both articles, they do not actually detail the data. This frustrates me, because plenty of people could actually make sense of the data, especially if the table or graph was well-formatted.
This is a source of ongoing frustration to me, because we put out that kind of data for the public at work. It doesn't make sense that they would include a PDF of their testing protocol and their letter to the FDA, but not a data table of the actual results.
Anyway, because I'm curious now and I have the background to understand it, I actually emailed them to see if I could get the data. I wanted to email the author directly, but they didn't seem to make that contact information available. Again, none of this is really a good sign. Not saying there's anything untoward happening, it's just frustratingly opaque for a supposed consumer advocate.
It's pretty well known that apples frequently contain arsenic, so that result is kind of unsurprising. They probably excluded orange juice because it's not generally known to have these contaminants. But they also probably excluded it because the orange juice most people buy in stores is a lie. (Sorry for youtube link, didn't have time to chase down better links. Also, full disclosure, I drink it knowing this anyway.)
Regarding grape juice, it now seems pretty clear that grapes are pretty good at taking up heavy metals from the soil they're in. So it's not just grape juice, but wine and balsamic vinegar also definitely have lead, and I'm sure there's some amount in straight grapes, too. Balsamic vinegar has to be listed under California Proposition 65 as containing lead.
My guess is that concentrates will always be worse for heavy metals...because they're concentrated. You can't filter concentrate without losing flavor, though you could filter the water. Things like apple cider would cease to be the same product after you filtered them also, so you could probably never get the arsenic out of those without growing it in an environment that has none. Functionally impossible to do.
I'll post back if they ever send me the data...but I don't have high expectations.
posted by Strudel at 11:09 AM on February 3, 2019 [8 favorites]
I don't see any comparison to heavy metal levels in either whole fruit or other beverages. And they say that levels have decreased significantly in the last decade. So...shrug?
The soil testing I've been doing around my city neighborhood - which has no industrial history but sky-high levels of lead contamination - in the last five years had led me to wonder how much ambient heavy metal contamination there is that simply goes undetected because no testing is legally required.
posted by ryanshepard at 11:58 AM on February 3, 2019 [6 favorites]
The soil testing I've been doing around my city neighborhood - which has no industrial history but sky-high levels of lead contamination - in the last five years had led me to wonder how much ambient heavy metal contamination there is that simply goes undetected because no testing is legally required.
posted by ryanshepard at 11:58 AM on February 3, 2019 [6 favorites]
If there are cars or other things with internal combustion engines, you will find elevated soil levels for lead. Many otherwise healthy foods pick up this lead.
posted by Katjusa Roquette at 2:48 PM on February 3, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by Katjusa Roquette at 2:48 PM on February 3, 2019 [3 favorites]
If you take any one of these heavy metals, and you enter the "name, pesticides" then it tells you what is what. The cadmium came from a compuund that is anti fungal. So, if you enter cadmiun, anti fungal then it links to the cadmium in nicotine. Billions of cigarette butts everywhere and in every dump, can't be without consequence. Do the same for the rest it goes on and on. A lot of cadmium compounds were dropped on golf courses, that was outlawed in the ninties.
Lead arsinate pesticides.All together now.
MSMA arsinate pesticide still allowed.
Apples, you see sentences like one early cover spray of cadmium chloride.
Certain products with these heavy metals were banned, but other compounds aren't.
posted by Oyéah at 2:51 PM on February 3, 2019 [3 favorites]
Lead arsinate pesticides.All together now.
MSMA arsinate pesticide still allowed.
Apples, you see sentences like one early cover spray of cadmium chloride.
Certain products with these heavy metals were banned, but other compounds aren't.
posted by Oyéah at 2:51 PM on February 3, 2019 [3 favorites]
Many otherwise healthy foods pick up this lead.
That may be true, but the real danger for gardening in urban areas with lead contamination doesn't come from the food grown in the soil but in the stirring up of the soil which gardening requires. That leads to airborne lead microparticles which will then be breathed in or settle on things which then lead to ingestion in various forms.
In urban areas, the only truly safe way to garden is in raised beds. Put a layer of cardboard across the area you're going to garden, then build your bed and fill it using 50/50 mix of compost and potting soil.
posted by hippybear at 3:01 PM on February 3, 2019 [3 favorites]
That may be true, but the real danger for gardening in urban areas with lead contamination doesn't come from the food grown in the soil but in the stirring up of the soil which gardening requires. That leads to airborne lead microparticles which will then be breathed in or settle on things which then lead to ingestion in various forms.
In urban areas, the only truly safe way to garden is in raised beds. Put a layer of cardboard across the area you're going to garden, then build your bed and fill it using 50/50 mix of compost and potting soil.
posted by hippybear at 3:01 PM on February 3, 2019 [3 favorites]
My daughter drinks an awful lot of juice (I swore she wouldn't, but chronic constipation . . . ) and her lead levels are perfect, which I find reassuring since otherwise this would send me into a whirlwind of completely and utter panic.
That may be true, but the real danger for gardening in urban areas with lead contamination doesn't come from the food grown in the soil but in the stirring up of the soil which gardening requires.
Score one for the Ruth Stout method.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 3:06 PM on February 3, 2019
That may be true, but the real danger for gardening in urban areas with lead contamination doesn't come from the food grown in the soil but in the stirring up of the soil which gardening requires.
Score one for the Ruth Stout method.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 3:06 PM on February 3, 2019
But they also probably excluded it because the orange juice most people buy in stores is a lie.
I swear I’m gonna fight Adam Conover if I ever see him on his definition of natural. I disagreed on the idea that farmed salmon is “dyed”; it’s not, they’re fed the same color enhancing carotenoid astaxanthin that wild salmon get from krill. And astaxanthin is a fucking fantastic antioxidant that comes from algae. The anti-farmed salmon movement are a bunch of asshats. I’ve also found zero evidence to the claim that astaxanthin is made in any real quantities in labs. It’s all grown from algae. Grumble grumble
Now orange juice which still uses oranges, it just has to be processed and reconstituted isn’t considered natural? How is putting a bunch of natural sources together suddenly not natural. I mean I get there is some jiggery pokery going on, but it’s also a stupid take on natural. But I guess so is the word natural.
posted by [insert clever name here] at 6:06 AM on February 4, 2019 [4 favorites]
I swear I’m gonna fight Adam Conover if I ever see him on his definition of natural. I disagreed on the idea that farmed salmon is “dyed”; it’s not, they’re fed the same color enhancing carotenoid astaxanthin that wild salmon get from krill. And astaxanthin is a fucking fantastic antioxidant that comes from algae. The anti-farmed salmon movement are a bunch of asshats. I’ve also found zero evidence to the claim that astaxanthin is made in any real quantities in labs. It’s all grown from algae. Grumble grumble
Now orange juice which still uses oranges, it just has to be processed and reconstituted isn’t considered natural? How is putting a bunch of natural sources together suddenly not natural. I mean I get there is some jiggery pokery going on, but it’s also a stupid take on natural. But I guess so is the word natural.
posted by [insert clever name here] at 6:06 AM on February 4, 2019 [4 favorites]
Dang it. Half & half grape juice/carbonated water is my favorite "soda" drink. I've been drinking it forever and probably not gonna stop now. I imagine the sugar I already knew about is probably more dangerous than the metals.
posted by straight at 8:04 AM on February 9, 2019
posted by straight at 8:04 AM on February 9, 2019
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Did CR say why they excluded orange juice from the testing? It's definitely better selling than grape juice in North America.
posted by migrantology at 8:31 AM on February 3, 2019 [2 favorites]