On the heels of the official confirmation from the FDA that
many apple and grape juice brands contain excessive levels of arsenic, parents
are asking themselves if they should cut out juice from their child’s diet completely. The good news is, if you are following
most pediatricians’ recommendation of only giving your child one small serving
of juice per day(about 6 ounces), you should be fine. The fact is that all things in nature contain arsenic and
other chemicals elements that naturally occur in our earth – the non-toxic
variety. The harmful, toxic
variety can be found in pesticides and industrial chemicals and is poison to
our systems. Unfortunately, the
arsenic levels tested didn’t delineate between the two varieties, only that
there was an alarming level in many brands tested. One could argue that both apples and grapes are in the
family of most heavily pesticide sprayed fruits as part of the infamous “dirty
dozen.” Would an all-organic fruit
juice contain less arsenic? In my
opinion, yes! Not that I’ve
scientifically backed up this theory, but putting two and two together, more
heavily sprayed fruits are probably the culprit to excessive levels of toxins..
Regardless, the FDA is strongly being urged by the public to
work on establishing stricter regulations on arsenic levels in juice similar to
ones already in place for drinking water in the U.S. Hopefully this will ease everyone’s worries about fruit
juice in the future. However, I’m
not entirely sold on the FDA’s regulations and oversight of additives in our
foods, but that’s en entirely different topic I might feel compelled to rant
about in the future.
Finding completely organic fruit juice is always an obstacle
in any mainstream store. It’s even
hard to find in health food stores like Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods –
especially in the ever-so convenient boxed variety that fits so nicely in a
diaper bag or lunch sack. Nevertheless, an option worth exploring. Another option is juicing your own
squeezed version of y our child’s favorite juices from organic fruits and
veggies. They might even get a
kick out of learning how juice is actually made. It can be a teaching moment in the process. Plus, nothing tastes better than fresh
juice – except an actual piece of the fruit you are juicing. Which, of course, is always a better
way to go to incorporate additional fiber in your child’s diet found in many
fruits and veggies when eaten whole.
I know you probably already knew that, but I felt like it was worth mentioning. Still, many children don’t get enough
fruits and veggies throughout the day or don’t necessarily enjoy the texture of
many fruits we enjoy as adults. So, until there is actually more research done
and stricter regulations on juice manufacturers is established, I think we’ll
avoid apple and grape juices all together in my household, or just find juices
with very little amounts of them to sip on. OJ anyone?
For more
information on safe juicing, visit http://blogs.webmd.com/childre…..worry.html
or http://blogs.webmd.com/childre…..worry.html
Sarah Mitchell
Owner, Buggy Bubbles, OC