TRUE CONFESSIONS: ALL OF MY FAVORITE FOODS ARE PRE-PACKAGED

Yes, it’s true.  Yours truly, a juice house representative is addicted to pre-packaged foods.  Before I divulge what foods i’m talking about, allow me to explain why pre-packaged food is both the best and the worst things you could possibly eat.  
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There’s a strange habit these days (and by “these day’s” I mean all of human history) where people are constantly trying to reinvent something that doesn’t really need to be reinvented.  Let’s consider 3 very common items: mops, blankets, and chopsticks.  A mop is something you use to clean the floor (or if you’re hip to the latest technology in floor dirt removal, a swiffer).  But did you ever see a baby scooching its way across the floor and have the feeling that maybe that little human could be doing some work!...No?  Me neither, but someone did, and made a onesie with integrated mop threads. ~*cough-cough*~ child labor laws ~*cough-cough*~.

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Other such useless inventions include the ever popular Snuggie, that turned the hum-drum blanket into an awkward sweater-like contraption with ugliness rivaling that of holiday sweaters and your uncle Fred’s too-tight cargo shorts.  Then There’s the chopstick fan.  I’m not sure if this is actually real.  Let’s forget that it exists :-)

Coming back to pre-packaged food - there are two categories:

1. Actual Junk Food: the first thing that came to your mind was probably Doritos and Little Debbie snacks.  This is what is commonly known as pre-packaged food, and everyone knows that it’s not healthy, yet we eat it because it’s available, we grew up eating it, and it tastes decent enough to overlook the fact that it doesn't really make you feel good.
2. Fruit:  That’s right, fruit….Let me explain.

Why are we reinventing food packaging when there is healthy and nutritious food that is already packaged for us by nature?  Fruit comes in the absolute best packaging anyone could have ever designed.  It’s a packaging that tells you when the food inside is ready to eat, or if it has gone bad. For instance, a banana is at its optimal ripeness when it starts to have little brown speckles on the skin.  When it’s green, it’s going to taste green, starchy, and not very sweet.  Watermelon should have a yellow spot on the bottom of the melon, indicating that it sat in the field an adequate amount of time, and was able to absorb enough nutrients and sugars from the earth and sun to make it delicious.  How do you know when it’s expired?  Well, with fruit it’s obvious, but with a lot of pre-packaged foods it’s hard to tell, or it’s so packed full of so many preservatives that it will never ever go bad.   Take your pick.

So let’s talk about the sugar factor.  Some people have argued that fruit has just as much sugar as junk food.  Well, let’s look at some facts from the USDA regarding soft drinks vs. bananas:

As you can see, you would need to eat about 3 bananas to get the sugar content of 1 soft drink, which I do regularly consume in one sitting.  But wait a minute, there’s a lot more than just sugar in bananas.  Banana’s are high in potassium, vitamin B-6, and even have some protein.  The soft drink on the other hand has 0 nutritional value, which means it’s really not doing anything for you, your energy levels, and your overall health and well being.
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So go eat some pre-packaged food of the fruit variety.  Eating fruit will make you feel better, and it’s delicious, inexpensive, and full of stuff that will help your immune system stay strong, help your mind be clearer, and will give you real energy to attack the things in your life that really require your attention.