fresh orange juice
During the last month I’ve decided to bring more raw foods into my everyday diet. My morning snack switched from toast with margarine and a cup of black tea with sugar/milk to a nutrient dense smoothie. In the beginning I was grabbing a carton of organic orange juice from the refrigerator and adding it to the Vitamix for the base of my smoothie. It seemed like a good healthy choice at the time.
As I began to research more into raw and live foods I realized that the “healthy” orange juice in my fridge may be organic but it’s been heated and therefore probably doesn’t have all the nutrients that it originally had. Since my goal was to increase the amount of raw foods I was eating each day, I made a decision at that point to stop buying orange juice from the grocery store.
What do you know about the process of orange juice?
I didn’t know much in the beginning. I learned a lot by reading the Wikipedia page about OJ. One thing I didn’t realize is that many OJ companies let much of the water in the juice evaporate so that it is lighter & cheaper to transport. When it reaches it’s destination they add ingredients back in called a Flavor Pack. They do this to make it taste better and so that you “think” that it’s fresh tasting. The compounds in these flavor packs are actually from orange peels but the producers don’t mention this at all on the labels. There was also no mention how long the process takes from the oranges being picked up to the time it’s available in the grocery store. I plan to do more research on whether organic brands do this same process.
More info can be read about Flavor Packs in this ABC News Story. It sounds even worse than the wikipedia article.
Now when I want some orange juice I pick two organic oranges from the fruit bowl and cut them in half. I place them in my KitchenAid Food Processor Juicer Attachment and in less than a minute I have nearly 8 ounces of fresh organic orange juice.
It’s really like tasting a bit of sunshine with each sip. It feels satisfying making my own because I know exactly what’s in the juice and where it came from. It also taste incredibly delicious.
Before I began using the KitchenAid attachment (which appears to be out of stock on most sites) I tried a number of juicing tools without much luck.
Do you have a favorite to recommend?
So healthy! What an exciting choice! Do you still drink the black tea? How do you feel? You are expending a tremendous amount of energy! Pack the juicer attachment last!
I am not drinking black tea any more. I still drink cold press coffee twice a day and soon I’m going to start drinking herbal teas that I make. My main drink of choice is filtered water. I use the orange juice for smoothies or for my Garden of Life protein drink. Overall I feel so much better eating this way. My brain is happy because I’m not having as many headaches and my memory is improving.