People today live a fast-paced life and often don't have time to eat fruit, but how can we get the daily vitamins we need? Drinking juice is a convenient way to maintain the body's vitamin levels. So how can you choose the highest quality juice from the many brands available? Here are five tips for your reference.
First tip: Check the concentration.
Every bottle of juice from a legitimate manufacturer has a clear label indicating the juice content. For example: juice concentration ≥10%, juice concentration ≥30%, juice concentration = 100%, etc. The higher the juice concentration, the more original juice it contains and the better the taste. A 10% concentration juice means only 10% of the beverage is original juice, with the rest being water, sugar, and other ingredients. At the same price, you should naturally choose a higher concentration juice. Second tip: Check the color.
Natural juice is prone to oxidation, but this does not affect its nutritional value or taste. Therefore, over time, the color of natural juice will become richer and more textured, and its transparency will decrease. It's like how the surface of a cut apple quickly forms a rusty layer. Those juices that always remain clear and bright may have added color stabilizers or preservatives, which are harmful to health. [China Food] Third tip: Check for sedimentation.
Juice is generally divided into clear-pressed juice and puree juice. Clear-pressed juice refers to juice that has been processed to a lower concentration, with most of the fruit fiber removed; puree juice is made directly from fruit that has been pureed, retaining more fruit fiber. Fruit fiber is beneficial to the human body, so puree juice is more nutritious and healthier than clear-pressed juice. A major characteristic of puree juice is that it will produce sediment, with the pulp settling to the bottom, and it needs to be shaken well before drinking. Consumers can try squeezing a fresh orange themselves to see if there is pulp sediment. Of course, there are also some juices with a very even color distribution where the pulp remains suspended and does not settle. This may be due to the addition of certain food additives, and its safety has yet to be verified. Fourth tip: Check the ingredients.
When buying juice, everyone should carefully check the bottle label. Juices that list chemical additives such as potassium sorbate or sodium某某 are generally not beneficial to the human body, and it is recommended to consume them with caution. In addition, citric acid is beneficial to health and should not be confused with sodium citrate. Fifth tip: Check the origin.
A good origin determines good fruit, and good fruit determines good juice. The nutritional value of the same type of fruit varies greatly depending on its origin. As the saying goes, "An orange tree south of the Huai River bears oranges, while north of the Huai River it bears bitter oranges." Furthermore, fruit from good-growing regions has the advantage of being grown without pesticides or fertilizers.
For example, tomatoes produced on the northern slope of the Tianshan Mountains in Xinjiang receive 16 hours of sunlight daily, are irrigated with Tianshan snow water, and are fertilized with organic manure from cattle and sheep, without any pesticides. As a result, the lycopene content in Xinjiang tomatoes is 1.8 times that of ordinary tomatoes. The nutritional value of tomato juice made from such tomatoes is naturally extraordinary; another example is oranges from Brazil. Due to climate and soil reasons, the quality of Brazilian oranges is far superior to ordinary oranges, with a vitamin C content 5 times or more that of regular oranges. If the juice ingredients come from good fruit-growing regions, manufacturers are usually willing to state the origin on the bottle label.