Orange juice not as black and white as you think

This winter professor, Pierre Laszlo gave an hour-long speech at the Central Library that I termed “OJ 101.” Though Laszlo clearly loved the history and “American capitalism” behind orange juice, he was less enthusiastic about the liquid itself. He spoke of several cases where manufacturers had been found “cutting” their supposedly 100 percent juice, most commonly with beet sugar. He also mentioned off-handedly the several mafia-style Brazilian families that control nearly all of the juice coming from South America, which is a huge amount.

But Laszlo said his book Citrus: A History wasn’t focused on the problems with orange juice. Well, Alissa Hamilton’s new book, Squeezed: What You Don’t Know About Orange Juice is.

Americans consume more than half a billion gallons of OJ every year. But behind the cheery, sunny packaging and health claims is a dark side.