What does 'not from concentrate' mean and why is it supposedly better for you?
Hey Hey
Excuse my ignorance as I should probably know the difference between from concentrate and not from concentrate but it always something that niggles on my mind when choosing juice at the supermarket and I always forget to research it. I am aware that 'not from concentrate' is meant to be better for you but why?
So first of all I have found out that both types outline the way the juice is processed. Both types are pasteurized in order to kill off any harmful microorganisms in order to prolong shelf life and ensure the product if safe for human consumption.
'Not from concentrate'- this means the juice is obtained straight from the fruit then pasteurized and that is it, it's ready to go.
'From concentrate'- however this means that the juice obtained from the fruit is filtered in order to extract the water from the juice. This is so the juice will take up less space when it's transported. Once it has been transported the water is added back into the juice before being pasteurized.
But why/how is 'not from concentrate' meant to be better for you?
Well it's interesting looking into this because apparently it's not necessarily better for you! Research states that as long as the correct amount of water is added back to the juice than what was taken out the nutritional content is only affected slightly. However it is considered that the more processing a product goes under the more opportunity there is for loosing nutrients. One piece of research outlines the small difference:
'One cup of 100 percent orange juice from concentrate, for example, contains about 100 milligrams of vitamin C and 40 micrograms of beta-carotene, compared to 125 milligrams of vitamin C and 80 micrograms of beta-carotene in fresh squeezed varieties.'
But it is important to consider that many 'from concentrate' juices have additional substances added to them which may change the nutritional properties. For example many have added, refined sugars, which have proven harmful to health if consumed in large quantities. Juice by itself is is usually high in sugar anyway so adding further sugar to this will increase the calorie content of the juice.
There seems to be a large hype about sugar at the moment, but I think that's a topic for another time! A program on at the moment outlined an interesting debate suggesting that sugar is not actually an additive substance, however there are many conflicting pieces of research!
Excuse my ignorance as I should probably know the difference between from concentrate and not from concentrate but it always something that niggles on my mind when choosing juice at the supermarket and I always forget to research it. I am aware that 'not from concentrate' is meant to be better for you but why?
So first of all I have found out that both types outline the way the juice is processed. Both types are pasteurized in order to kill off any harmful microorganisms in order to prolong shelf life and ensure the product if safe for human consumption.
'Not from concentrate'- this means the juice is obtained straight from the fruit then pasteurized and that is it, it's ready to go.
'From concentrate'- however this means that the juice obtained from the fruit is filtered in order to extract the water from the juice. This is so the juice will take up less space when it's transported. Once it has been transported the water is added back into the juice before being pasteurized.
But why/how is 'not from concentrate' meant to be better for you?
Well it's interesting looking into this because apparently it's not necessarily better for you! Research states that as long as the correct amount of water is added back to the juice than what was taken out the nutritional content is only affected slightly. However it is considered that the more processing a product goes under the more opportunity there is for loosing nutrients. One piece of research outlines the small difference:
'One cup of 100 percent orange juice from concentrate, for example, contains about 100 milligrams of vitamin C and 40 micrograms of beta-carotene, compared to 125 milligrams of vitamin C and 80 micrograms of beta-carotene in fresh squeezed varieties.'
But it is important to consider that many 'from concentrate' juices have additional substances added to them which may change the nutritional properties. For example many have added, refined sugars, which have proven harmful to health if consumed in large quantities. Juice by itself is is usually high in sugar anyway so adding further sugar to this will increase the calorie content of the juice.
There seems to be a large hype about sugar at the moment, but I think that's a topic for another time! A program on at the moment outlined an interesting debate suggesting that sugar is not actually an additive substance, however there are many conflicting pieces of research!
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