Everyone seems to be getting excited about arsenic content in commercial fruit juices. Consumer Reports has put out a report; news media have propagated their study. Not that we shouldn't expect this news. Arsenic is not only present in nature - our air, our water - naturally, just as the juice bottlers maintain, but it's also a component of insecticides.
Juice has other disadvantages. It's usually relatively caloric, because (for example) a typical glass of orange juice contains the juice and calories of at least three oranges. It's also sweet; naturally, to some extent, but also often excessively so due to the addition of more sugars. And finally, it's adulterated. Many juices labeled as a fruit (cranberry juice, cherry juice, apricot juice) contain only a limited percentage of the juice of that fruit, and a large percentage of apple juice. No doubt this is because apple juice adds sweetness, and because it's cheap. But it's not what you're paying for.
I was surprised to learn that many mothers are giving infants juice in bottles, several times a day. Wow. I suppose they think of it as "natural," but besides the various indignities inflicted upon pure juice by the folks who bottle it, it's useful to keep in mind that drinking juice isn't "natural" at all. Cavemen, I feel pretty certain, didn't squeeze the juice out of their fruit into some rudimentary stone bowl and drink it. The ATE THE FRUIT.
So: Save your kids. Drink water. Eat fruit.
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