It is universally known that consuming fresh fruit juice has great health benefits for humans. Each day we purchase fruit smoothies thinking how beneficial would be for our health and believing they will help us lose weight. We start our mornings with vitamin C which we get from drinking orange juice. Perfectly healthy juice is made of fruits and veggies.
We allow our kids to drink lots of this “fresh fruit juice” since we believe it is healthy. It doesn’t matter if it is homemade or purchased, juice seems to be a healthy choice.
Anyhow, the truth is that the juice we buy from stores contains high amounts of sugar. So, it is not very different from drinking soda.
Even though the label says that the juice is 100% pure, it could also say “complete sugar”. You may be avoiding sodas, but consuming this type of juice is harmful to your health too.
Fruits contain sugar which is known as fructose. Corn syrup contains lots of fructose which is also sugar. Although it is natural, fructose does not belong to the list of healthy sugars and is not required for your well-being. Fructose is good for your health only when you consume it from whole fruit.
It is believed that consuming high amounts of fructose can lead to diabetes type 2, high blood pressure, LDL cholesterol, obesity, heart disease, and high triglycerides. Additionally, fructose may have links to cancer as well. If you eat whole fruit, you do not consume lots of fructose, but if you drink juice, then the amounts of fructose are extremely high, and that can negatively affect your health.
Consuming orange juice in a 12-ounce glass means you are consuming lots of fructose/sugar, or 37 grams to be precise. If the juice is from apples, that is 40 grams of fructose.
Drinking fruit juice equals a can of soda. That is not all, if you are a grape juice lover, the amount of fructose would be 60 grams which is one and a half can of soda.
Mixed fruit juices are not a healthier option either. They use apple juice or white grape juice as a sweetener, and that means even more sugar. Look at the grams of sugar in Ocean Spray 100% Cranberry Juice and in Tropicana Berry Punch.
It is important to note that the sugar and calories do not outweigh the number of vitamins. Fruit juice in a bottle has very low amounts of antioxidants, vitamin C, and other nutrients.
A severe problem with fruit juice is that it does not have fiber, but it has lots of liquid sugar. Since it is sweet and drinkable, you can consume high amounts of sugar in a very short time.
Fructose can be easily converted into fat cells that can be easily stored which leads to weight gain.
You can develop fatty liver disease because most of the fat cells are stored inside the liver. The rest of the fat cells become triglycerides which can cause heart disease.
According to a study, drinking a glass of grape juice each day led to insulin resistance and obesity in only three months. In addition, consuming two glasses of juice each day may cause painful gout.
Liquid calories are dangerous because when you drink them, you do not feel full, so you drink, even more, you eat, and you end up with many health issues.
Urban Yoga Foundation conducted on children found out that consuming sweet beverages each day led to a 60 percent higher risk of obesity. If you think you are doing a good thing by allowing your children to drink juice, you are wrong! Save your children from developing obesity or diabetes type 2 by not allowing them to drink juices.
In the USA and other countries, too, more and more children have obesity problems. One of the main factors is soda and juice. To satisfy their thirst, children should drink water, not juice!
When talking about the production of juice, it is important to note that juice is not made freshly squeezed straight from the farm. The juice we purchase from stores goes through unnatural processes, and it is not 100% pure juice.
To be more clear, let’s take orange juice as an example. The oranges are harvested, then the juice is squeezed out of them, then heated, pasteurized, and finally, stored in huge containers that are oxygen-free to preserve them for more than a year.
Making the juice oxygen-free takes out the flavor. Due to this, they add artificial “flavor packs” that bring back the taste of orange in orange juice. That is the reason why big companies like Minute Maid and Tropicana always have the same taste.
Although they use orange by-products to make the flavor packs, it does not mean they are healthy. The orange by-products are treated with chemicals, but they would not tell you that.
Bottles and stored juices are all pasteurized and heated to get rid of yeasts, bacteria, and the rest of the pathogens. In this way, they decrease the health benefits such as enzymes, fiber, and antioxidants. Fiber is important because it slows down sugar absorption, and also, fiber is good for the bacteria in the gut.
Bottles we see in stores that have a “smoothie” label on them, do not mean they contain fruit and fiber. They are more likely to be made of fruit juice (lots of sugar). Buying smoothies from the store means you are buying just sugar and a bit of flavor, nothing else.
Whenever you feel thirsty, get yourself a glass of water. If you are not a water lover, you can make water taste better by adding orange, lemon, several raspberries, or even cucumber. To make your sparkling water taste better, try adding a bit of freshly squeezed orange, lemon, or lime juice.
If you are a huge flavor lover, then you can try kombucha tea. This is a fermented tea that does not contain lots of sugar, just about 1/8th of the sugar found in juice. However, this tea contains compounds and phytochemicals that help fight cancer and heal gut issues.
Since kombucha tea is becoming very famous among people, many companies produce different flavors. Make sure to pay attention to the amount of sugar when you are purchasing this tea because some companies add extra sugar. Anyway, one cup of kombucha tea usually has 2-8 grams of sugar which is much lower than sugar in soda or other juices.
If you avoid drinking juices, you notice how many calories you and your kids consume. It is for your good to stay away from all sugary beverages.
Due to its popularity, kombucha tea can be found in numerous gas stations and corner stores around the country.
Some people do not have enough electrolytes, and those are usually people who are physically active and sweat a lot or those who are on a Keto diet, a low-carb diet or are on intermittent fasting. If you are one of them, you should not consume drinks such as Gatorade, or similar drinks because they contain lots of sugar, poor-quality salt, artificial colors, and sweeteners.
Sources:
Urban Yoga
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/fruit-juice-is-just-as-bad-as-soda#section4
https://greatist.com/health/fruit-juice-increases-risk-diabetes-090313
https://universityhealthnews.com/daily/nutrition/is-fructose-bad-for-you-why-fructose-is-worse-than-sugar/
https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/12/06/fruit-drinks-sodas-evil-twin.aspx
http://civileats.com/2009/05/06/freshly-squeezed-the-truth-about-orange-juice-in-boxes/