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Dr Oz: The apple juice is toxic.

Here's some more takes on it. This is from Los Angeles Times:
The Dr. Oz website contains this explainer: "Other countries may use pesticides that contain arsenic, a heavy metal known to cause cancer. After testing dozens of samples from three different cities in America, Dr. Oz discovered that some of the nation's best known brands of apple juice contain arsenic."

No way, says the FDA, which fired back with not one but two letters to producers of Oz's show. The agency says it has monitored apple and other juices for years for arsenic levels. It disputes the high amounts Dr. Oz says he found -- 36 parts per billion -- and adds that in its own tests, including juice from the same lot Dr. Oz tested, levels were at 2 to 6 ppb.

Oz also tested for total arsenic amount, which the FDA says isn't an accurate reading. Arsenic occurs naturally in foods in organic and inorganic forms, it noted in one of the letters, and only certain levels of inorganic levels are toxic. "We have advised you that the test for total arsenic DOES NOT [all caps is theirs] distinguish inorganic arsenic from organic arsenic."
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I don't know any chemistry so can't tell if the FDA's position is valid. Maybe someone will post and let me know.

The Washington Post had a video (after the commercial, of course:rolleyes:). Here's an excerpt (starts at about 0:45 seconds) with Dr. Gail Charnley of the Juice Products Association:
The science shows that apple juice is safe and people should not worry. Dr. Oz used the wrong laboratory test, he got the wrong results, he drew the wrong conclusions and is using them to scare moms. I think that's irresponsible.
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She's a good spokesperson for them. She mentions science, she sounds convincing, she has a good sound bite. She says some of the same things the FDA says. Hey, she convinced me :D (barring evidence against her statement). I do wonder what kind of doctor she is, though.
 
Oz is a known problematic vector of disinformation, to skeptics. Why is this a surprise?

Isn't he part of the Oprah/Dr. Phil axis of clownish disinformation and evil?
 
Even if we grant that Oz's figures are correct—can a concentration with such a vanishingly small total of 36 parts per billion actually have any negative health effects, either in the short or long term? What's the scientific verdict on that?
 
Corsair 115 said:
Even if we grant that Oz's figures are correct—can a concentration with such a vanishingly small total of 36 parts per billion actually have any negative health effects, either in the short or long term? What's the scientific verdict on that?
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WHO recomendation for drinking water is 10 ppb, precisely for cancer concerns, so ... yes?
I think it's that you drink considerable amounts of water daily, and it will quickly build up in your system.

McHrozni
 
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McHrozni said:
WHO recomendation for drinking water is 10 ppb, precisely for cancer concerns, so ... yes?
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Thanks. I was just wondering. 36 parts out of a billion is an awfully small amount, so I was curious if there the issue was simply related to the incredibly low concentrations tests these days can measure.
 
Dr. Oz did a very poor job "interviewing" Dr. Steven Novella a few months ago. Steven did a great job of maintaining his cool and logic.
 
Corsair 115 said:
Thanks. I was just wondering. 36 parts out of a billion is an awfully small amount, so I was curious if there the issue was simply related to the incredibly low concentrations tests these days can measure.
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To be fair, our safety standards also have a healthy dose of safety in them, so 36 ppb may still be relatively harmless :)

According to wikipedia article, the real danger begins at around 70 ppb.

McHrozni
 
Having watched a video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeRvTXUxgDU) just now, I'm not sure Oz's position is quite as indefensible as this thread makes it sound. One of his points was that the FDA limit applies to "inorganic" arsenic, but that "organic" arsenic (the kind that I gather is naturally present in apples) is potentially dangerous too, in low doses over long periods of time. I know nothing of the chemistry or biology involved, but that at least seems like it might be a reasonable point.

On the other hand he doesn't seem to have separated the two clearly in his original report, which certainly does seem pretty sloppy.
 
Apple Juice may be toxic, but not for the reasons Dr. Oz gives. Like all juices it is nothing more than sugar water with trace nutrients and as unhealthy as pop or any other sweet drink.
 
sol invictus said:
Having watched a video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeRvTXUxgDU) just now, I'm not sure Oz's position is quite as indefensible as this thread makes it sound. One of his points was that the FDA limit applies to "inorganic" arsenic, but that "organic" arsenic (the kind that I gather is naturally present in apples) is potentially dangerous too, in low doses over long periods of time. I know nothing of the chemistry or biology involved, but that at least seems like it might be a reasonable point.
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Organic arsenic means arsenic bound to an organic compound. It is completely distinct chemically from inorganic arsenic. Take phosphorus for example - inorganic phosporus is quite dangerous, but life as we know it can't function without the phosphate ion.

It's true that most organic arsenic compounds aren't exactly beneficial to health, but if he claims they are outright dangerous in the miniscule amounts they occur (from pesticides used in cultivation, probably) he really should be able to back it up with some evidence.

McHrozni
 
Apple seeds contain small amounts of cyanide - but the outer covering insures you don't get any of it unless you chew or gring them up - and you are still unlikely to get a sickening dose, much less a killer. No arsenic BTW. Snopes (from 2007) and others give the data. According to Snopes, most people remember a poison in the seeds and think of it as arsenic (possibly - this is me, not Snopes - because most people think of cyanide as a gas - due to executions where it is).
 
A few of the children at the school where I work are panicked over this. Several of them refused to take the apple juice served last week.
 
MacGuffin said:
Apple Juice may be toxic, but not for the reasons Dr. Oz gives. Like all juices it is nothing more than sugar water with trace nutrients and as unhealthy as pop or any other sweet drink.
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:confused:

Are apples unhealthy? If I slice up some apples and throw them in a blender, making apple juice, is that unhealthy?

"Apple juice flavored drink" and the like, those are just sugar water. What makes apple juice worse than an apple?
 
Lisa Simpson said:
Apple juice has no fiber to slow down the sugar stampeding into the bloodstream.
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It does if you don't filter out the pulp. But that's just about the sugar. I should have asked what makes it toxic, since that's what I was replying to.
 
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