Juice: Facts, Fiction and Fruit

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By Peter Watson

Juice bars are incredibly popular these days, will advanced juicers follow suit?

The first thing to say is that we know very little about juice. Or more correctly perhaps, we have lost a great deal of information, had it swept under the carpet, pushed aside by various guru's (medical, scientific, alternative and the etcs) and been persuaded by sales people in stores and on the small screen passing on all manner of information, some of which may be right, most of which is hugely biased and worthy of a spin doctor's acclamation - and lastly some that is downright wrong.

Juice and juicing has been known for hundreds of years, ever since man began to harvest crops of fruits and vegetables.

The juice was taken raw and often processed into cordials as a means of preservation. The juice of the grape was of course made into wine.

In the 1940s and '50s, juicing and the use of raw juices experienced a great resurgence as people started to become aware that steps needed to be taken to counter the effects of modern living with the increased use of chemicals and the more widely diagnosed illnesses made possible by developing technology.

The use of juice had been practised for thousands of years by less advanced societies such as natives of tropical countries who drank juice as a matter of course, Indians who had long enjoyed and understood the benefits of juice as taught in ancient Vedic texts and most other native cultures.

Europe in the mid 20th century had a long history of the use of juices with a wide and in some cases, deep knowledge of the benefits and effects of various juices on the human body. Like most other aspects of life and living in Europe, this was taken on as part of the rhythm of life and living and incorporated into day to day practice.

Wise women and men experienced in the arts of eating to cure, were aware of the variety of edible, curative fruits, vegetables, herbs and wild growing material around them and knew that pounding them in pestles and mortars and juicing them by squeezing and pressing them in domestic grape-type presses, they would extract the valuable and health giving properties.

In the USA the 1950s saw the beginning of the health movements where people began living in the deserts, developing all manner of alternative living and health attitudes and delving deeply into the effects of foods and juices on life and for medicinal purposes. This movement is the genesis of today's re-emergence of interest in juice.

There is an amazing amount of literature on this movement, they were very vocal and leapt into print frequently in order to promote their cause. Some of the claims seem ludicrous by today's standards, things like muscle development and long life, things that today we would see debunked by traditional medicine.

But perhaps it may be of some advantage to re-examine some of the claims made by these people in just the same way that we should always take seriously the claims of native people when it comes to the benefits of plants.

One thing that was hugely popular was the use of cider vinegar in good health. I have often wondered where these claims went to, but they make some sense when it comes to the human body's acid/alkaline balance!

It is very hard not draw some conclusions about this newly found interest in juice, conclusions that would say things like, stress, lifestyle, chemicals, prolong life and of course rampant commercialism. We live in a world where we are all placed under stresses the like of which we have never experienced before.

We work at paces that leave us less and less time for recreation, we crowd into our lives so much and expect that our bodies and bodily systems will simply absorb all that we throw at them and continue to support us as we lead our hectic and often hysterical lives.

But then again, juice is a little like country life, sort of regarded as beneficial and good, without quite knowing why and, with the spin doctors (I am not sure that I quite approve of the spin doctors and their efforts) telling us that juice is great, so go out and buy buy buy.... do I sound cynical?

Suddenly we think, 'I better try and do something to help', or in many cases, get frightened by newly diagnosed epidemics such as diabetes 2. Doctors these days have little grasp on lifestyle as a means to assist in curing what ails us and so we are seduced into believing that the occasional glass of juice is going to help.

That may or may not be correct.

Looking first at the phenomena of the multitudes of juice bars that have sprung up in every suburb and town, it is hard not to be cynical and say that this is just another of the continuing line up of franchised, moderately good ideas that someone had and that someone else thought... "hey, we can make money out of this!"

These shops offer little of no explanation of the benefits and, it must be said, the downsides of the juices they dispense, except to say that glowing good health will result if you come along each day and spend money.

You will be offered a variety of different fruits and vegetables to choose from and also some corporate recipes, some of which are now becoming the subject of litigation as juice companies try and protect their territories.

The CEO and founder of one of these companies has publicly admitted that she spends more time these days on litigation than any other aspect of her business. You will not be told if the vegetables are organic, chemical free and what the benefits or the juices are. You may be told that the wheat germ grass that is now sold is quite big business. Did you know that:

• Wheatgrass juice cleanses and builds your blood,

• Wheatgrass juice improves skin and hair,

• Wheatgrass juice builds muscle and endurance,

• Wheatgrass juice fights infections,

• Wheatgrass juice lowers blood pressure,

• Wheatgrass juice dissolves tumors,

• Wheatgrass juice acts as an appetite suppressant,

and so on.

Check GrowWheatGrass.com for some in-depth hard sell with little or no back up scientific information. In the end you will make a decision based on how much you have been influenced by advertising, your taste buds or the staff. None of this is bad - it must be said that some raw juice is better than no raw juice.

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