Moms Talk: Arsenic in Apple Juice

In September, Dr. Oz came out with a segment that claimed there was arsenic in apple juice, a lot more than what should be, sending fruit juice panic into some families. 

This month, Consumer Reports and the FDA released their research, and actually found that 10 percent of apple juice contains more arsenic than allowed in water. 

Have you heard about the controversy? What are your thoughts on apple juice now? Are you keeping it in the juice rotation, or pulling it from the fridge?

Karin Jackson

We are not a juice family and had not heard this news.  Our kids drink milk at meals (organic) and filtered water the remainder of the day.  In the summer we keep a few pouch drinks in the fridge for impromptu swim parties, but we avoid soda.

My first question in reading this was to wonder how the cyanide finds its way in to the apple juice. After all, more and more chemicals are finding their way into our foods in the growing stages as well as the processing.  

Take for instance the recent study by Harvard University that found 1200 percent more biphenyl A (BPA) in the output of people who ate soup from a can than those who ate freshly prepared soup.  Aluminum cans are lined internally with plastic (who knew?!) so the aluminum ironically doesn't leech into the food. Unfortunately, BPA leeches into the food instead.

Having said that, however, my husband recalled an episode of GI Joe from his youth in which the good guys redirected the blob monster into an apple orchard in order to kill it... Because each of the apple seeds had a bit of poison in them and collectively took out the monster.  

According to Snopes.com this is actually true!  "[T]heir pips (seeds) contain amygdalins, a cyanide and sugar compound that degrades into hydrogen cyanide (HCN) when metabolized."  Snopes goes on to say that even the most avid apple eaters would unlikely consume enough apple seeds to do any "harm."  Evidently, however, in making apple juice, it is not in the chemicals sprayed during the growing season or the method in which the juice is delivered to us but rather the seeds that are not first removed?

I am increasingly at a loss as to what to do about keeping our family and myself healthy... besides going to live by a stream in the mountains, growing my own fruits and veggies, and raising cows on grass fields.  Oh, and remembering to not eat the apple seed.  Got it.  Seems reasonable, right?

Jennifer AuBuchon

We, likewise, are not a big juice family.  Other than Capri Suns for lunch, it's pretty much water or milk at home.  Of course, as the kids get older, they want soda more than they used to.  

I think that it's incredibly possibly to make your head burst if you worry about every little thing that could potentially harm us.  Between the hormone injected chickens, arsenic laced juices, e coli contaminated veggies… I better buy a lot next to Karin and share that stream… though it'll probably have toxic waste flowing in it from somewhere!

Samantha Goswami

I was aware of the juice  issue but I did not pay too much attention to it. We don’t drink too much juice at all. Flavored water for lunch bags and we have apple juice only if the kids need it if they are coughing. The next time I buy apple juice I will be sure to buy organic. Hopefully that will be safer or will it ?

I am not sure of the right way to feed our kids anymore.

Lisa May

We have switched to frozen apple juice, not sure if this is the same as what Dr. Oz is talking about. I generally serve juice for breakfast, water the rest of the day and milk for dinner. 

I will have to think about this next time I am shopping. I wish the children enjoyed orange juice (like I do), but unfortunately they do not. 

Jenny Wescoat

We are not big on juice at our house. I have a good friend who is a dietician, and when I had my first she encouraged me to not substitute juice for whole fruits and vegetables. However, we do use it as a treat instead of Kool-Aid or soda sometimes and juice boxes come in pretty handy when we're going on an outing or a vacation.

So I'm not sure what we will do! This is one of those times when I can't wait to hear what the other moms say. Their long track record of wisdom on these weekly topics will give me some guidance.