When you really want to avoid unnecessary calories of sugar; you may have to look beyond the term “sugar” on the box. Added sugar is present even in the form of juice from concentrate in many packaged foods making it less visible and seemingly innocuous.
Juice from concentrate is concentrated juice of that particular fruit. Water is evaporated from the fresh fruit juice to extend its shelf life and reduce volume. Evaporation involves heating the juice to high temperatures and extraction involves adding some chemicals to get a more condensed product. This is further pasteurized to kill micro-organisms.
Common sense tells us that during the entire process many heat and light sensitive vitamins are destroyed. Once extracted, the juice may lose the colour , odour and taste of the original natural fruit which may then be replenished with artificial look-and-feel-alikes!
The juice from concentrate can be of two kinds :
- Juice from concentrate with preservatives
- Juice from concentrate without preservatives – 100% real juice
It is important to read labels carefully for added sugars in the juice from concentrate such as high fructose corn syrup, glucose syrup, etc. A label reading punch or beverage and not 100% juice from concentrate means that it contains additives and preservatives.
So much caution and pain in choosing the right packaged juice. We may rather go with fresh whole fruit or an occasional home-made freshly extracted juice.
References:
http://www.livestrong.com/article/395545-is-juice-from-concentrate-healthy/
http://www.inhouserecipes.com/juice-from-concentrate-vs-fresh-juice/
#Thinkhealth blog 