Thursday, September 26, 2013

Pasteurized beverages OK if consumed with enzymes?

I was surfing the web, when my progress was interrupted by a shocking article I encountered:  A Few Reason To Dump That Carton Of Orange Juice Down The Drain. This surprised me, because I had found from personal experience, that drinking the Whole Foods 365 brand of un-reconstituted tangerine juice, before exercising, improved my athletic performance; I've been able to feel this, and I've measured how I do about 15% better in weightlifting after consuming a mix of the tangerine juice and various oils and pills.

The article stated:
"... 98% of the orange juice in North America is pasteurized or flash pasteurized.  ...it’s the process of heating a liquid at an extremely high temperature for a few seconds and up to a half of minute, essentially destroying any nutrients that were left in the  juice, leaving you with essentially sugar water...".
Continuing to look into the matter, I found a similar article by none other than an American Olympic wrestling champion/coach  (he says his "company FORZA is the exclusive Nutritional Sponsor of USA Wrestling"), which stated:
"...All Pasteurization is BAD because it kills ALL the Living Enzymes in the FOOD and severely diminishes the nutritive value of the food.... Pasteurization has to be at least 145 degrees to be effective but living foods are killed at temperatures beyond 118 degrees, so 145 degrees clearly kills all life in a natural food, be it fruit, vegetables, or animal milk...Pasteurization Means DEAD Food…".
Hence I felt I was faced with a major emergency, since I had grown used to depending upon pasteurized fruit juices, as a way of naturally obtaining nutrients such as vitamins and anti-oxidants.

Researching the matter, I found that actually, pasteurization of juice actually produces only a minor decrease in terms of the vitamin content of the juice, a decrease that can be easily compensated for by increased consumption; according to a believable source, 12 oz of pasteurized orange juice, provides as much vitamin C as 8 oz of unpasteurized orange juice:
"... Although the levels of certain nutrients in juice may decrease with pasteurization, the final product retains most of the original nutritional value....The sugars and minerals in juices are typically unchanged by pasteurization and remain present in high concentrations. ...Vitamins are more vulnerable to heat destruction than are sugars and minerals. Pasteurization may cause low-level loss of some of these micronutrients. Vitamin C, also known as ascorbic acid, is the most vulnerable of the vitamins to heat degradation during pasteurization. Fresh-squeezed orange juice contains approximately 124 milligrams of vitamin C per cup; pasteurized orange juice contains approximately 84 milligrams, nearly one-third less..."
Also, pasteurization of milk  produces almost insignificant decreases in the vitamin content of the milk.

I got to thinking, these people talk as if there is something foolish and sinful about cooking-- pasteurization usually consists of for a few seconds heating the pasteurized liquid to a temperature below the boiling point. I remembered how the TV announcer had said that cooking stuff like carrots increases the beta-carotene released by carrots. I remembered how 9 oz of the pasteurized tangerine juice I buy provides not just 100% of the vitamin C requirement, but also 20% of the vitamin A beta-carotene requirement, whereas the expensive unpasteurized fresh-squeezed tangerine juice has no vitamin A content. Then it hit me-- apparently, best I can tell, the pasteurization of the tangerine juice increases its vitamin A content.

Research shows  many vegetables have a higher content of anti-oxidants, especially beta-carotene vitamin A, after they are cooked.

The weird idea that cooking food is foolishness bothered me. I remembered reading about Christ and his apostles cooking fish, cooking bread. I remembered reading in the scriptures:

Dan 1:11-16   Then said Daniel to Melzar, whom the prince of the eunuchs had set over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, Prove thy servants, I beseech thee, ten days; and let them give us pulse to eat, and water to drink. Then let our countenances be looked upon before thee, and the countenance of the children that eat of the portion of the king's meat: and as thou seest, deal with thy servants. So he consented to them in this matter, and proved them ten days.  And at the end of ten days their countenances appeared fairer and fatter in flesh than all the children which did eat the portion of the king's meat. Thus Melzar took away the portion of their meat, and the wine that they should drink; and gave them pulse.

The 'pulse' Daniel ate, is often translated as lentils. The word refers to leguminous plants in general, such as chick-peas, beans and lentils. Such plants are not eaten raw, they are cooked.

So the pasteurized orange juice is lacking in enzymes. This can easily be compensated for by obtaining enzymes from natural foods, or from pills.

Overall, I felt that yet again, I had encountered the phenomenon wherein nutritional wizards becoming inexplicably terrified by some 'defect' in some food, even though their wizardry has given them the ability to easily counteract said 'defect'; the wizards forget that it might be more cost-effective to consume the slightly 'defective' version combined with the compensating nutrients that neutralize the 'defect', as opposed to consuming the expensive or time-consuming or energy-consuming 'perfect' version of the food; they forget that said cost-efficiency could end up giving them more money to play with by spending on this or that nutrient.

But I thank the alarmists for alerting me to the fact, that the consumption of pasteurized substances, apparently needs to be accompanied by consumption of compensatory enzymes.

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