Thirsty? Grab a water, for now.
Dr. Mehmet Oz revealed a shocking statement to parents on yesterday's episode of Dr. Oz: Many popular brands of apple juice contained arsenic.
The TV doc had a studio full of parents when he not only explained how he got this information, but pinpointed which labels had significant amounts of the chemical (and how much).
During the show, Oz made everyone aware of his efforts to contact the Food and Drug Administration in order to get its side of the story, but got no response.
Well, the FDA is talkin' now. And the agency has plenty to say about the expert's findings...
"There is no evidence of any public health risk from drinking these juices," the agency said on its website. "And FDA has been testing them for years."
Stephanie Yao, an FDA spokeswoman, told the Washington Post, "We're concerned that people are going to start thinking their juice is unsafe when that's not case."
Here's the main issue, according to the FDA: Dr. Oz's testing was "erroneous" because he does not differentiate between organic and inorganic arsenic, which is key since only inorganic arsenic is toxic.
Juice Products Association also released a statement regarding Oz's revelations.
"The results of tests for arsenic in apple juice that were shared by the Dr. Oz show with the Juice Products Association should not be interpreted as fact," the statement said.
"Subsequent testing of the same lots of juice from two of the named brands, using an appropriate method for testing arsenic levels in juice, found significantly lower levels of arsenic, all well under any FDA level of concern."
So much for the wonderful world of Oz.