Orange juice holds a high position in the pantheon of American breakfast icons. Each year 620 million gallons of the orange ambrosial cure-all are consumed by Americans. However, is it truthfully fresh or are you getting jerked around?

Ads tell us (wink, wink) it’s pure and natural so we obediently buy the orange au jus for the sentiment. Nevertheless, the majority of our American tradition is a year old and comes from, tell-me-it-ain’t-so, Brazil. The largest fabricators of “not from concentrate” or pasteurized orange juice keep juice in million-gallon aseptic storage tanks to ensure year-round supply. Aseptic storage strips the sun-blessed nectar of vital oxygen, so the juice doesn’t oxidize in the “tank farms” where aging, weakened, lifeless juice loiters up to a year.

‘Packed’ with flavor?

Shopping at a whole foods grocery, I noticed an orange juice label touting, “No flavor pack added.” Interest piqued, my research began. OJ drinkers, you’ve been hoodwinked about what you’re actually drinking. Big brands touting their product as “pure and simple” add flavor packs to make it fresh...again.

ABC News and consumerit.com report flavor packs are fabricated from chemicals that make up orange essence oil. Flavor and fragrance houses that make high-end perfume break down orange essence oils into their constituent chemicals then reassemble the individual chemicals in configurations resembling nothing in God’s nature.

“From concentrate” and most “not from concentrate” OJ undergoes heat processes that strip flavor and nutrition. Pasteurization obliterates most of the juice’s health sustaining phytonutrients, including digestive enzymes. Heat alters the molecular structure, creating higher acidity during digestion, rendering your temple perilously acidic. There’s a growing awareness regarding the harms of acid-creating sugar, of which orange juice has aplenty.

Vitamin C and its potent cancer protection is the most easily destroyed vitamin. Its oxygen is destroyed by the 145° of pasteurization – a pitiable surrogate for fresh, sun-blessed orange juice squeezed at home from cooperative oranges. Bummer, since Vitamin C is a potent antioxidant that boosts immune function, increases resistance to infection and protects against a constellation of modern diseases. Experienced naturopaths have learned when vitamin C is administered in very high doses by intravenous (IV) infusions it kills cancer cells.

Lip-smackin’ ethyl butyrate is one of the charming chemicals found in high concentrations in flavor packs. Flavor engineers discovered it imparts a fragrance Americans dig and associate with fresh squeezed. No self-respecting vodka would cozy up to this abomination of the Creator’s magnificent gift to us. If you protest pithy parts, remember that’s where all the nutritional goodness lurks. So grow up. You’re accountable and in control of your health destiny.

You deserve better

Creepy on many levels, Tropicana reformulated their healthy-heart juice, adding fish oil, sardines, filthy tilapia and fish gelatin for the Omega 3. Eating fatty fish, ground flax seeds and walnuts is infinitely better.

Food Renegade.com adds: “The food industry follows its own logic because of the economies of scale. What works for you in your kitchen when making a glass or two of juice simply won’t work when trying to process thousands upon thousands of gallons of the stuff.”

Score a juicer and properly nourish your temple with fresh, orange deliciousness. Return to a pre-industrial revolution mentality. Make family time to juice your own. If half the world can, why can’t we? It’s cheaper and your temple will groove from the purity. Like they say, a day without orange juice is a like day without sunshine.

Now is the time to opt out of the industrial food system as much as you can to become the sole architect of your gift of health. Blindly trusting brand names and convenience have an unkind quid pro quo. We are eating for a time that no longer exists. Orange up, my friends, because you’re worth it.