Nutrition: Is Freshness Worth the Price Difference?

[Bacle]

Hi, All:
This is my 1st post to Biology; I hope this is not too far off :

There are two main brands of juice drinks I often drink, say, A and B.

A is 33% more exprensive than B, but the only difference I could find between

them is that A contains a combination of 3-4 juices, all of them fresh-squeezed juices (i.e., not

from concentrate), while

B contains exactly the same juices , only that the juices in B are from concentrate.

Just curious: does one really get that much more

nutrition from a fresh-squeezed mix than from a mixed of juices from concentrate to be

worth a price difference (adjusting/scaled for bottle size) of $2.00 ?

Thanks.

 

[Bacle]

I just wanted to clarify that I am not asking whether paying extra makes sense for the specific value of $2.00; I was just hoping for some comments on how much of a difference the freshness of the juice makes health-wise.

 

[256bits]

If it is freshly squeezed orange juice, then how come we can get juice in the off-season?

For me freshly squeezed would be picking the fruit, squeezing it and having the juice then and now.
Something has to sit around for a while, the fruit in a climatized warehouse, the juice in a big storage vat, the containers you buy in a store. Six months after the harvest you are not buying "fresh from the garden" anymore. So the fresh part is a marketing ploy from the juice company.

 

[DaveC426913]

If it is freshly squeezed orange juice, then how come we can get juice in the off-season?

For me...

As Bacle points out, freshly-squeezed does not mean newly-squeezed, it simply means it is not been reduced to a concentrate for distribution and then reconstituted again.

 

[Pythagorean]

I saw a reality show about a diabetes clinic where the guy that runs it claims a diet of "live" food (freshly killed veggies, cells are still alive, enzymes being produced) is the "cure" for diabetes.

Of course, there's no control experiment. People go from eating McDonalds to eating veggies only and it stops their diabetic symptoms... But would it have worked just as well with frozen veggies? Probably. The problem, I presume, is McDonalds.

 

[256bits]

As Bacle points out, freshly-squeezed does not mean newly-squeezed, it simply means it is not been reduced to a concentrate for distribution and then reconstituted again.

I still think it is more marketing ploy than anything else. Why not say right on the box "More nutricious than juice from concentrate", so they could gain possible market percentages that way from nutriciously conscious individuals. But that would not add a big percentage so they say "Freshly sqeezed" and who can argue with "Fresh."

At one time there was only single juice brands - apple, orange, grape, grapfruit...
Blending added another variety for people to choose from. If your competator had only 4 varieties to your now 5, theoretically the market split would be 50/40 in your favour instead of the previous 50/50 split.

And then there is the juice with extra pulp added, and people will buy that not knowing what pulp is and does, but the product has something extra so it just has to be better.

Edit: So I am a sceptic of marketing ploys.

 

[Bacle]

Thanks for your comments. Unfortunately, my 'quote' function does not work at the moment.

256bits:

I'm clearly a skeptic myself ; OW I would not have posted asking whether there is a justification for why one juice mix is pricier than the other. Still, there seem to be specific issues to help make the decision, if one had a reasonable understanding of biology, biochemistry--which I don't have-- to determine if fresh-squeezed has more nutritional content than one that is made from concentrate.

I'm sure that if the juice had been squeezed right-there-and-then it would likely (I'm admitting here my limited knowledge of biology/biochemistry here) contain more nutrients, maybe some live enzymes, as someone mentioned, than juice that had been stored for months. Still, the issue is whether the process of concentrating the juice removes nutrients and/or kills enzymes, and/or speeds up the general process of fermentation/decay more so than if one had the juice freshly-squeezed. I imagine too, that freshly squeezed also means that there may have been no pasteurization done on the juice.

Now, an additional question: what are the implications of dehydration? Are nutrients, enzymes lost in the process (that, of course, cannot be recovered when adding back water)?

So, while there is always marketing garbage to watch out for, there also seem to be some specific-enough issues here to help decide either way.

 

[Pythagorean]

Ah, here's what I was referring to in my last post:

Gabriel Cousens, Tree of Life foundation. A clinic for "reversing diabetes naturally":

http://www.gabrielcousens.com/

thoughts from medicine professionals? Is this borderline crackpot or what?

 

[256bits]

Here is some more discussion from another msg board:

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/archive/index.php/t-113069.html

Now, an additional question: what are the implications of dehydration? Are nutrients, enzymes lost in the process (that, of course, cannot be recovered when adding back water)?

The actual fruit gives the best nutrition.

Vitamin C will oxidize in the air, so storage and heating in air leads to its eventual oxidation.
Vitamin C is also water soluable so cooking the food and throwing out the cooking water leads to a loss in this vitamin. Certain oils are volatile so heating will also drive some of them off as well.
Even when making your own juice from the fruit, it will lose some of its nutritional value as time goes by in the open air.

Now is that what happens when the companies make concentrate? Does the concentrate keep the same nutrients or do the companies have to add to after the process? What does the nutrition label say on both of your brands - is there any difference there?

 

[Bacle]

Thanks, that was helpful. From what I remember, there are no comments in the label re adding nutrients, nor changing anything, but I'll check next time.

 

[Pythagorean]

Apparently, RNA from plants can interact with your body:

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/8...-survive-digestion-and-alter-gene-expression/

I wonder what implications that has for fresh plants; do fresh plants have higher RNA levels?

 

[atyy]

Of course, there's no control experiment. People go from eating McDonalds to eating veggies only and it stops their diabetic symptoms... But would it have worked just as well with frozen veggies? Probably. The problem, I presume, is McDonalds.

Many McDonalds have salads. Did the McDonalds where they were not have salads? Or could they not afford them?

 

[Pythagorean]

Many McDonalds have salads. Did the McDonalds where they were not have salads? Or could they not afford them?

Obviously it's about eating habits, not where you eat; Most people don't happen to go to McDonalds for their salad... which, I may add, is not what made McDonalds into this:

 

[atyy]

Obviously it's about eating habits, not where you eat; Most people don't happen to go to McDonalds for their salad... which, I may add, is not what made McDonalds into this:

Sonic is impressive!

 

[Pythagorean]

I've always enjoyed Sonic when in the lower 48. We get commercials here, but don't actually have one.

 

[Pythagorean]

Here's the journal article, as requested:

Zhang, et al. Exogenous plant MIR168a specifically targets mammalian LDLRAP1: evidence of cross-kingdom regulation by microRNA. Cell Research, (20 September 2011) |

 

[EricVT]

How does sugar content per ounce compare between the from-concentrate and "fresh"-squeezed varieties?

 

[Monique]

Here's the journal article, as requested:

Zhang, et al. Exogenous plant MIR168a specifically targets mammalian LDLRAP1: evidence of cross-kingdom regulation by microRNA. Cell Research, (20 September 2011) |

That's amazing! Thanks for the link, I'll definitely be reading that article.