Apple Juice: Not Going To Kill You After All

Despite what “Dr.Oz” (Mehmet Cengiz Oz) says, apple juice isn’t going to kill you like a spy-movie villain with a suicide tooth. Here’s what

“dr.Oz” says:

American apple juice is made from apple concentrate, 60% of which is imported from China. Other countries may use pesticides that contain arsenic, a heavy metal known to cause cancer. After testing dozens of samples from three different cities in America, Dr. Oz discovered that some of the nation’s best known brands of apple juice contain arsenic. In the spirit of full disclosure, below you’ll find all the test results, statements and information you need to keep your family safe.

Something which is important to remember is that not all foreign producers use arsenic. Also, there is a big difference between organic and inorganic arsenic. US and EU fruit is not exposed to arsenic in pesticides anymore, and fruit from these regions are safe no matter what dr. Oz says. Also, the US is most prolific in using organic arsenic compounds in animal feed, something other parts of the world has abandoned. This should be a bigger concern for US citizens (and dr. Oz) than apple juice…

The FDA issued a statement after the show, saying that the show’s analysis was flawed, and that they had retested both the lot the show referred to (Nestle/Gerber lot# 1157515791) and several (7 other samples) other lots of apple juice, and found nothing out of the ordinary, and nothing that supported the Dr.Oz show’s claims.

In fact, this was their summary: There is no evidence of any public health risk from drinking these juices. And FDA has been testing them for years.

A bit more from the FDA:

Organic arsenic is essentially harmless, according to Zink, but the inorganic kind can be harmful at high and long-term levels of exposure.

FDA has been tracking total arsenic contamination in apple and other juices for about six years, since foreign producers started gaining an increasing share of the juice market, says Henry Kim, Ph.D., a supervisory chemist at CFSAN.

Also:

The Food and Drug Administration has every confidence in the safety of apple juice.

The most entertaining thing that came out of this mess was probaly the following stunt by Mark Eiglarsh, attorney, drinking from a huge bottle of apple juice while commenting on the misleading information Dr.Oz has put out there:

Is it appropriate to make a cheap joke in a televised discussion on critical consumer health and safety issues? Attorney Mark Eiglarsh seemed to think so when he went on America Live to discuss Dr. Oz‘s recent controversial findings that showed various apple juices contained higher levels of arsenic than the safe drinking water limit as determined by the EPA.

The moral here is that once again, Dr.Oz has it wrong – go ahead and drink your applejuice. No matter what, it’ll do more good for you than harm to you. That much is certain.

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