What the drink is. Do you know?
Drinks vending machines can be found around train stations, in busy shopping streets and sometimes even in residential areas. In supermarkets, beverage corners are crammed with mineral water, green tea, coffee, fruit juices and carbonated drinks. Even before you drink them, their bright colours arouse your desire to sip them. And once sipped, they taste great and leave you wanting more. In the past, many people would have thought, “Why pay for tea or water when you can drink it (tap water) almost for free”, but before long, “buying beverages to drink” has become the norm. However, before long, it has become commonplace to “buy beverages for the mouth”. We looked into the secrets behind these tasty drinks that appeal to the senses of sight, smell and taste.
In the past, when carbonated drinks first appeared on the market, children longed for them and begged their parents and others for them. But parents didn’t give them away, either. This was because they felt that they might contain something unknown.
Compared to the ordinary fruit juices that had been available, it was clearly more colourful, sweeter and more pleasant to the palate, and at a lower price. They knew it was artificially produced and felt it was dangerous. Some parents threatened their children not to drink it, saying it would ‘melt their teeth’ or ‘turn their tongues blue’.
A vivid drink that has already become commonplace.
Is it really medicine or poison?
Over time, brightly coloured and carbonated drinks have become commonplace. Conversely, juices made from ‘real’ fruit juice have been driven off the shelves. Parents are in the minority when it comes to keeping their children away from brightly coloured drinks.
Now let’s examine the contents of a carbonated drink with a picture of a fruit on the packaging. First, add a little fruit juice to the soda water. To get a fruit picture on the packaging, you have to add more than a few per cent of fruit juice. For example, add about 5 cc of orange juice to 100 cc of soda water. At this level, it is almost odourless and tasteless, and even those who are very sensitive to taste will not recognise it as orange.
Next, sweeten the drink to make it taste better. Most often, fructose glucose is used. This is a liquid sugar made from corn or potatoes that has been enzymatically broken down into glucose and then some of the glucose has been converted into fructose. It is not included in the list of additives and, as it is of natural origin, it does not have to be specified as an artificial sweetener. It is also a good choice for beverages as it becomes sweeter at lower temperatures.
The sweetened beverages we see so often are
May promote ageing?
However, fructose is said to cause ageing by producing high levels of age-accelerating substances AGEs (terminal glycation products). It is also said to be unsatisfying and easy to consume in excess, as insulin is not involved. Common beverages contain this fructose glucose liquid sugar, which is too sweet to drink without other flavours.
Orange and lemon essences are then used to add flavour and aroma. Many of these are also synthetic chemicals. Colourings are added to improve the appearance. Some of the colourings permitted in Japan are tar-based, processed from coal or petroleum. In other countries, some of them are required or regulated with a warning statement that they may have adverse effects.
Even in 100% fruit juice drinks, which are considered safe, there is a big difference between ‘reduced concentrate’ and ‘straight’. Some concentrated reductions contain added sugars and additives.
From now on, it may be a good idea to compare beverages in supermarkets and vending machines from a different perspective.
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)
By Admin|2024-04-18|News Release,|