Is cloudy organic juice safe for your kids?
August 12, 2009 by Jennifer
I’ve served Cedar cloudy juices for most of his life, mainly because many of the co-ops and natural grocers only recently started making clear organic juices. In the past, when Cedar was a babe, most of the organic juices at the store were simply cloudy as a rule. I’ve had play groups at my house in the past and some parents freak a little about cloudy juice. I’ve had parents tell me, “I don’t give my baby unpasteurized juice!” Which seems to be a common misconception of organic juice.
Santa Cruz Organic Fruit Juices
The 411:
- Unpasteurized juice is not normally considered safe for kids because of their developing immune systems.
- You should not serve unpasteurized juice to your baby or child unless it’s juice you make at home; i.e. you blend up some apples in the morning.
- Unpasteurized juice has been associated with food borne disease caused by E. coli – which is more dangerous for kids than adults; although not great for adults either.
- Cloudy organic juice DOES NOT equal unpasteurized juice.
- You can buy unpasteurized organic juice if you want but in actuality it’s harder to find. Most of the organic cloudy juice you see at the store is pasteurized and safe for your child. It will say on the bottle “Pasteurized”.
I’m not sure where this whole scare about cloudy juice comes from, but so long as you get pasteurized juice you’re not only safe, but healthier. A recent study by polish scientists found that cloudy apple juice has nearly double the level of antioxidants as clear juice. This rocks because antioxidants help protect against heart disease and cancer. The juice manufacturing clarification process, while it does lead to clearer juice also leads to fewer antioxidants according to the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture.
The final say – Cloudy juice is safe. It’s unpasteurized juice you need to watch out for. Some kids won’t drink cloudy juice, but it’s only, from what I’ve seen, because they’re not used to it. Most kids are raised on clear, non-organic, sugar added juices. They see this sort of juice at daycare, on TV, and in most folks’ fridges. However, if you give your kids organic cloudy juice from the start, they won’t even notice that it’s not clear, and if you’re going to serve juice why not serve the healthiest juice you can?
Do you serve cloudy juice? Why or why not?
That’s funny-I always assumed the cloudy juice was healthier, more “wholeness” I guess.
I always felt cloudy juice was healthier because that is the way it looks when it is juiced fresh. I would assume that clear juice is from concentrate with sugar added. I have always given my 14 month old organic juice, I typically stear clear from just about all food products geared towards kids!
I’ve also thought that cloudy juice was healthier as it is closer to the juice you would produce out of your juicer at home. That “cloud” is all the good stuff. My sons drink the clear juice when they serve at daycare and cloudy juices at home. I’ve never heard any complaints from them.
Everyone swears something is going to kill us all. Personally I grew up in an old fashioned household-great grandparents raised me. I drank raw milk, cow and goat. Ain’t dead yet
Raw juice, raw garden veggies with cow poo’ for fertilizer. Clear juice was something novel from the store.
In all seriousness, I understand that trucked in juice, no matter how close the juicer, stands a chance to grow bacteria. This is true even with pasteurized. There’s been a few times I opened a bottle of ‘regular’ juice[clear] and black mold had grown inside the cap.
The best juice will always be fresh made at home. But, if someone can’t get that, I agree with the other commenters-cloudy seems more healthy as it hasn’t been processed to death. Isn’t the cloudy stuff extra fiber, anyway?
Pregnant women are also supposed to steer clear of unpasteurized juices since they have weakened immune systems too.
I’ve actually never heard the term “cloudy juice” before! But I get it.