Arsenic in Apple and Grape Juice?

I think it was one of those moments where I said to my husband , "yet another reason to moderate juice intake." As we know many, many other issues are contributed to with massive amounts of juice some children are given - rotten teeth, obesity, type 2 diabetes, lack of calcium intake, etc.
We are not a huge juice family, my real concern was - What about Wine?! LOL

Oh my, yet another reason to......

ignore news reports.

Have you ever looked at all the FDA recommendations? We should all be dead.

Honestly, arsenic is a naturally occurring organic substance in apples. The reports are not separating the different types of arsenic. Also, just like Rachel said, I rarely give my daughter full strength apple juice.

I am not worried at all.

Arsenic is a NATURALLY occurring chemical in apples and other fruits.

You do realize that they are talking parts per milligram, right?

If you are that concerned about it - make your own apple juice - you might like it better. But again, arsenic happens naturally in apples. If you don't want to do that - then water the juice down.

This is like the reports that came out saying the saccharine caused cancer in lab rats...they were using 1000x times the amount ONE PERSON would consume in a lifetime on these LITTLE animals...so don't stress over it.

You are good. Breathe....

Arsenic is found in apple seeds, right? So maybe some seeds get in the way of processing.

PS is right on. Apple seeds are poisonous.. Why? Arsenic. So a few seeds made it through the filtering process before it was processed to juice... the bigger issue is the in-organic (meaning not naturally occurring from the fruit/seeds) arsenic. The first noise about this a few months back did not differentiate between organic and inorganic arsenic levels. This study does.

BUT, juice really provides about ZERO nutritionally, so why give it to your kids AT ALL? We never did. Our kids didn't even like it. Watered down or not. It really amounts to giving your kids sugar to drink. If they were thirsty and didn't want milk, we gave them: water (gasp!).

Apparently Consumer Reports found high levels of arsenic (the toxic inorganic kind, not just the naturally occurring organic kind) in 10% of the juice they tested. Also, they found elevated levels of lead in some samples. I was not aware that most apple juice concentrate now comes from China -(think unregulated use of pesticides). Approximately 35% of kids under 5 drink more than the recommended maximum daily amount of juice. We pretty much only drink locally grown cider in season as a treat and occasionally fresh squeezed orange juice on vacation. Who needs the extra sugar and calories? Not me and not my kid.

LOVE Christy's answer. I assume since wine is grown and bottled where it says on the bottle and I do not buy wine from China that I am pretty safe. Not worried about my 5 year old on that one.

Yes, and bananas are radioactive. These things occur naturally and are not a need for concern unless a person is ingesting way, way, way more than what is considered a normal level.

My kids do not drink juice unless someone else gives it to them, behind my back. :)

There is also arsenic in baby lotions too. :(

My take is everything in moderation. Six oz. sounds good. We're not supposed to drink too much sugary juice in one day anyway (even though I do).

I am not so upset about the arsenic levels as I am about a related issue: why are we importing food (which they say is the source of arsenic that isn't naturally present in microscopic amounts in some foods)? The apples they were talking about were grown in China! Motts says on their website that their fruits are sourced from the US and from international sources as well. And the other day I was reading a label on a bag of frozen vegetables (due to a family member's food sensitivity). It was a regular, widely recognizable American company, and it said "product of China". And this was not an exotic Asian style vegetable, it was plain old corn. And a major natural foods chain store gets the vegetables they freeze under their store-brand name from China.

And then there's the honey problem! Have you read about the honey tampering? Most US mass retailers of honey get their honey from several countries where pesticides and artificial things are added to the honey.

With farmers struggling and people out of work, do we actually need to import apples and vegetables and buy honey that is potentially dangerous and not actually honey? (The article said honey produced locally by small businesses was good, they're talking about big chains and even that honey that comes in the bear shaped plastic bottle).

I hope that the arsenic issue makes people aware of the importing issue.

what.ever.
So is this what the orange growers will be happy about? Now people won't want to buy apple or grape juice. Another, market influence or dis-influence. Who did the study anyway? Does it matter?
Many people only read headlines.

They should be more concerned about all the hormones that are being put into foods via that is what our protein food chain is fed, than what apple seeds may contain.

But, the quantity of 'juice', yes, many people drink too much. Per Prevention magazine, even just 1 cup a day, can in some people, increase tendencies for Diabetes, by (I think it was), 28%.

This is a link to a story that describes the recent studies in more detail. And, contrary to some of the earlier posts, it does differentiate between the organic and inorganic types of arsenic.

http://health.yahoo.net/articles/nutrition/arsenic-in-juice

We don't allow our son to drink much juice at all in the first place, so it will not make a difference to us to drop it all together. To me, this is just another chapter in the disappointing book of the American food industry. While we don't take every study to be 100% gospel, evidence continues to mount that our culture of food preparation, processing, and agriculture is causing health problems in Americans. For our family, it means a return to the basics of whole, organic foods, preferably from familiar sources. It just comes down to figuring out what you think is right for your family and following through with it, whether it is the popular option or not.

I look at it as another thing that occurs naturally in apples and they are trying to find something to send mothers into a fit.
With the amount of lead paint and everything else that was around years ago we all managed ok. Now all this stuff that they are taking out is doing nothing but making some kids sicker as they get older because their systems did not naturally build an immunity to.
Unless its a massive recall I dont worry about much the news puts out. I mean come on how many times have they gone from eggs are good for you and the next year they are horrible for you.
Who knows maybe its another way for the FDA to get parents to stop giving their kids juice because they worry about all the sugar. We will never know.

I would be more concerned about all the household and personal care products that everyone comes into contact with each day (breathing it in, absorbing it, wearing it in/on your clothes every day).

Jodi D's answer is spot on. The story is very misleading (and is being regurgitated from the same story out several months ago). No worries.

i don't give juice to my kids. so that is not my concern BUT what really pisses me off is all this country, so large, vast, and bountiful we get our fruit from china????? you know what? i used to live in fl and bananas used to be so expensive. btw we had bananas growing in our backyard but just didn't make any sense.

Juice is pretty devoid of nutrients so my kids never really have it anyway. When they did, it was always watered down.
Whole fruit is always better, as is water.

Dr Oz is doing a segment on this very issue twice this week (of course, I can't remember which days). It will be interesting to see what he says about it.

I heard the same I started to purchase organic apple juice only. There is always something new as far as the foods and products that we use it is hard to say what is true or false, I just try to make informed changes and for us IMO organic apple juice is healthier and has way less sugar even tho more expensive.

juice is unnecessary to start with. not much better than candy imo, still full of natural sugars (and that's IF you're talking 100% juice without the high fructose corn syrup), and i can tell when my son has had too much of ANY kind of sugar. we try to keep fresh fruits on hand and drink WATER, occasionally milk. i am a huge believer in water anyway. but i did tell my husband (he is a soda/tea/juice/milk basically anything BUT water drinker) NO MORE JUICE. juice companies SHOULD take a hit from this. they're basically a racket anyway. just like so many other things.