FRUIT JUICE, TEA, COFFEE, WINE, AND TOBACCO

Taking fruit juices, tea, coffee, wine, and tobacco the same? All these five items comes from plants. Basically their nature is the same. They may vary at the amount of basic elements that they contain. Some plants are completely devoid of elements that are found in others. Some plants contain substances that are their protective mechanisms against predators. In this way, plants may contain substances which when taken by organisms are harmful to the health. Such content may be called poisons.

Since time immemorial, humankind have richly classifed plants according to usage. This is based on their substance content. Fruit juice like orange is an extract of the sap of orange fruit. Sap are the nutrients from orange plant found in the fruit plus water and essential oil, so it is fluid. Tea and coffee are extracts from dried fruits branches, stems, leaves, and barks of plants. So, the extracts are minus the water contents and some parts of essential oil. Wine is produced from the sap of fruits and fermented to evolve alcohol. Tobacco are crushed, dried leaves of the plant.

I addition to the difference of their nutrient content, preparation for usage are also different. Some people would eat the whole fruit of orange to get the sap. So, they also eat the pulp that is rich in cellulose or carbohydrates. But this form of carbohydrates can not be digested and absorbed in human system.

Instead of eating raw fruits, leaves, barks, and stems of plants, some would dry them out first to release the water and some parts of the essential oil content. From out of the dried parts, tea and coffee is prepared by adding some boiling water. After few minutes, the clear water would turn yellowish to brown indicative that soluble substances are already in water. Some would filter out the the almost colorless cellulose parts. The filtrate is then taken as beverage.

Crushed and dried tobacco leaves are usually rolled into tiny sticks. These are lighted to burn. Smoke is puff from the burning leaves. After sometimes, only ashes are left.