When you go to the market, you want something fresh to drink. Being a health-conscious person, you bypass the soft drink aisle and head to the juice aisle. There are oranges, apples, grapes, and many different smoothies – blueberries, pomegranates, strawberries, egg whites, acai, pineapple, kiwi – and none of them contain sugar. It’s perfect.
Stop right there! Maybe you should go back to the beverage aisle and buy an old-fashioned Coke.
Why? Because commercial juices and most smoothies are just as unhealthy as cans of soda. That’s right. They are absolutely high in sugar. They contain the same amount of sugar as soda, and in some cases even more.
If you’re still confused by this question, a 16-ounce Coke has 13 1/2 teaspoons of sugar. Apple juice and orange juice contain about the same amount. Grape juice has 20 teaspoons of sugar. Most “healthy” smoothies from Naked and Odwalla have about 15 teaspoons of sugar.
Take a break and think about it. Imagine buying a cup of coffee, going to the serving counter, and tearing open 13-19 packets of sugar to put in your coffee. If you saw someone doing that, you would be disgusted. And yet, that’s exactly why we turn to fruit juice drinks.
Fruity smoothies are just as bad. On average, you consume 15 teaspoons of sugar per 16-ounce bottle. Yet the marketing of these drinks would have you believe that they are actually good for you. On the Naked Pomegranate Acai Smoothie label is an illustration that shows at a glance how much fruit is in each bottle. 1 2/3 pomegranates, 95 acai berries, 1 1/3 apples, 1/2 banana, 14 red grapes, and 14 white grapes. All of these fruits equal almost 16 teaspoons of sugar.
I have a question. What would happen if you actually sat down and ate 2/3 of a pomegranate, 95 acai berries, 1/3 of an apple, 1/2 of a banana, 14 red grapes and 14 white grapes? Of course, it takes much longer to consume all of these fruits than it does to drink a smoothie, which reduces the “sugar high.” Plus, the feeling of fullness is increased. That’s a hell of a lot of fruit to eat in one sitting.
In terms of nutritional value, juices also lag behind, as Dr. Robert Lustig, author of Fat Chance: The Bitter Truth About Sugar, explains, the main problem with juices is the lack of dietary fiber. Fiber reduces the absorption of sugar, which makes you feel fuller faster and reduces insulin production. The amount of sugar consumed by children is alarming and is probably a major factor in the increase of obesity. For example, a pomegranate-acai smoothie has zero grams of fiber, while real fruit has 45 grams. It’s amazing! Make a huge fruit salad.
Fruit without fiber can trigger sugar bombs in the body.
In fact, the concentrated sugar in juices that contain no fiber can spike blood sugar levels and the corresponding insulin response. According to Lustig, removing fiber changes the chemical composition of sugar. In the whole fruit, the sugar is sucrose, which is half glucose and half fructose. But after separation, the sugar becomes 100 percent fructose, which is metabolized only in the liver. Instead of providing energy, it produces fat and becomes resistant to insulin.
What does this mean? Fructose consumption (yes, juice!) ) has been linked to obesity, liver dysfunction, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, insulin resistance, systemic inflammation, increased appetite, chronic fatigue, sugar cravings, and many other medical problems described in Happy Healthy Long Life, a medical librarian’s fact-based life adventure. Just a few months ago, researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health found that the more fruit juice consumed, the higher the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, as reported by the Harvard Gazette.
Read: Treatment of Ed With Apple Cider Vinegar
Just think of what this means to the millions of children who drink juice from cartons and glasses all day long. I speak from personal experience: fruit juice is promoted as a healthy alternative to soda and milk. The amount of sugar consumed by children is alarming and is probably a major factor in the increase of obesity in our country.
The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, reported in Science Daily earlier this year, for example, showed that regular consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages (defined as eight ounces at least once a day) was associated with a higher body mass index in four- and five-year-olds. That’s about 3 pounds? That’s only half the weight of a normal can of Tropicana orange juice! They also found that “five-year-olds who regularly consume sugar-sweetened beverages are more likely to be obese, and two-year-olds who regularly consume sugar-sweetened beverages have a higher BMI over the next two years than two-year-olds who consume few sugar-sweetened beverages.”
But they are natural and full of vitamins, right? Yes, they are natural and some of them contain vitamins. However, many juices that meet the recommended daily allowance for certain vitamins contain added vitamins. For example, the nutrition panel for Naked’s popular Mighty Mango smoothie juice says it contains 100% RDA of vitamin A, but it is. Added in the form of beta-carotene. The same juice contains only 10% of RDA for vitamin C. If you ate all the real fruit listed on the label, you would consume 156% of the RDA of vitamin C.
There is actually no argument in favor of drinking fruit juice. Taste? Convenience? The harm isn’t worth it. In fact, the harm far outweighs any positive aspects. What is my favorite drink? When I’m thirsty, I always turn to a glass of water. But if I want to drink something that tastes good, I turn to 100% vegetable juice (though I try to avoid sweetened carrot and red beet juice), unsweetened tea, or sparkling water with a little fruit flavoring (check the label!), etc.) By the way, all those electrolyte replacement drinks and vitamin waters? Most of them contain even more sugar than soft drinks and fruit juices.
About Author
Sara loves to know about healthy nutrients which help to prevent the human body from various diseases. So people enjoy a healthy lifestyle. Healthy nutrients like Lychee Juice, Guava Juice, Pomegranate Juice, and many other fruit juices.
