If you are one of the many parents now second guessing your decision to pack a juice box in your child’s lunch tomorrow, you are not alone. In a recent episode of the Dr. Oz Show, national health guru Dr. Mehmet Oz claimed that apple juice not only contains arsenic, but levels much higher than what is deemed safe for our drinking water.
According to an independent study conducted on behalf of the Dr. Oz Show, ten of the three dozen apple juices sampled came back with an arsenic level higher than the amount allowed in drinking water. Of these, Gerber, Juicy Juice, and Mott’s were three of the highest with 36 parts per billion, 22 parts per billion, and 16 parts per billion reported, respectively.
Yet, despite these results, the FDA wants you to feel assured that pouring a glass of apple juice is still safe to do. In fact, the FDA claims there is no public health risk associated with drinking apple juice and that they have been performing safety checks for years to ensure that what we drink is indeed safe.
A safety level for arsenic has not been set for juices and although this may seem alarming, the FDA states that the type of arsenic primarily found in juices is organic arsenic, an essentially harmless form. In the case of water, the primary source is inorganic arsenic which is the form typically considered to negatively impact health when consumed in large quantities.
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