Maybe nature is smarter than we think.  In our excitement over the past few decades for making food more and more convenient, we’ve actually made food that is less and less nutritious.  Slowly, most of us are realizing some balance is to be obtained in this whole obsession for convenient foods.  If a little extra effort is required, many of us are willing to make it if it means a greater measure of health.

A perfect example of this trend away from convenience and back to what is best for the body is juice!

Most of us grew up drinking orange juice.  It usually came in some kind of giant jug or carton far from fresh-squeezed.  It was cold and orange – that was really the only qualifier.

Cold and orange are definitely preferable qualities in orange juice, but what happens between that orange being picked and it sitting in that bottle can make a big difference in the way your body processes it!  To the naked eye, a juice that has been cooked and then cooled (the basic process of pasteurization) and a juice that is completely fresh may look exactly the same.  But drink one or the other and your body knows the difference without being told.

The short story on fresh juices is this: fresh, living juices are full of enzymes!

en zyme [en-zahym] noun: any of a group of complex proteins that are produced by living cells and act as catalysts in specific biochemical reactions

Enzymes are basic building blocks required by the body to spark an array of vital reactions.  Our body produces it’s own enzymes and also requires digestive enzymes from the food we eat and drink.  Strip your food of enzymes and your body is forced to supply the enzymes itself just in order to digest the food. That can really wear your body down!

So what strips enzymes from fresh juice? Any form of cooking.  While your cold bottled juice may not look cooked (it’s cold and orange, right?), if it reads ‘pasteurized’ then, sure enough, it’s been cooked.  That’s the surprising truth behind that icy cold glass of juice: unless it’s fresh, it’s actually cooked juice!

Everyone loves juice and drinking it can have amazing results on your health.  Just make one switch: read your labels and choose fresh, unpasteurized juices.