Nutrition aside, there is no liquid on earth that tastes better than freshly made fruit juice. The flash-pasteurized, bottled stuff available at your local grocery store is ok in a pinch, but that’s like comparing a picture of your girlfriend to actually having her in your arms. No matter how great your camera, there’s just no comparison. The only danger for me is the temptation of drinking more fruit and less vegetable juice. Those cantaloupe juice cravings get me every time. The general rule of thumb is vegetables are high in minerals and fruit is high in vitamins; both provide a different range of antioxidants, so it makes sense to drink equally from both to obtain the widest spectrum of nutrients in your diet. As for Gatorade®, soda, and the like, I just assume the poor folks I see chugging back those counterfeits-in-a-can, have never had the privilege of supping on the nectar of living fruit.
What amazes me is how something that tastes so good can be so good for you. Whereas the food coloring in sports drinks can cause cancer, the natural coloring in fruit actually protects from cancer, and the more color the better. Fresh fruit juice is a great way of getting loads of vitamins and antioxidants into your busy kids’ bodies. Even the fussiest eaters will down a tall glass of cantaloupe juice or orange juice, supplying their entire daily need of vitamin C and A, just to mention a few. Freeze the juice into homemade popsicles and you have a fun treat to bribe them into eating their veggies at supper.
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