It seems like every time you kickstart a new health wellness journey  you vow to ditch the junk food, eat more vegetables and drink fresh juice. Your first trip to the market usually involves loading up on  brown rice, beans and stocking up on fresh fruits.  Most likely you start feeling good about embarking on a new journey (again) but you pause longer than usual in the juice aisle.  Should you just drink water or are some juices okay? “No one has time to squeeze from juice  every day,” is probably a thought that crosses your mind. “…and what the hell does juice not from concentrate mean?”is floating somewhere in your head.  It doesn’t matter if you are trying to lose weight fast or if you are simply trying to improve your health by cutting processed foods, knowing the truth about health claims used as marketing tactics  can help you make the best choices while shopping.

Is Juice Not from Concentrate Really Healthier Than Juices From Concentrate?

In short, when you see “from concentrate” on your juice label that means that the fruit was dehydrated and condensed into a juice concentrated. You’ll find these juices frozen in the freezer aisle with the label “frozen concentrate”. When you go to the refrigerator aisle (you know the one by the milk and eggs) the label on the juices read “from concentrate” because the dehydrated juice was rehydrated with water which makes it from the concentrated juices that would otherwise be frozen in the freezer section to  preserve it.

A juice not from concentrate means that it was processed without removing any water. Most like a juice not from concentrate is pasteurized and stored in a way that the oxygen is removed. Sometimes the makers of a not from concentrate juice adds extract from the peel for taste.

1.  Not from concentrate = No water was removed
2. Frozen Concentrate = Fruit was dehydrated, condensed, and frozen
3. From Concentrate = Fruit was dehydrated, condensed, frozen, then rehydrated with water

Myth Buster: If no sugar was added then their nutritional benefits are basically the same or extremely similar.  If sugar was added then obviously, the one with less added sugar is better.

Not From Concentrate or Fresh Squeezed?

It really depends on  what you are using the juice for.  Most times fresh squeezed juiced is less processed has more nutrients, it also taste more fresh  but may have a short life.  Not from concentrate juice might do the job for recipes and has longer shelf life. The law requires all items that are fresh-squeezed to be labeled as such. “Not from concentrate”  juice can claim that it taste like fresh juice but they can  not be called “fresh-squeezed” juice unless it is packaged right after it has been squeezed and no other processing has been done.