Fruit Juices value??- Please read & comment - Nice to have a discussion .

[Gandhi]

University of Glasgow's Institute of Cardiovascular and Medical Sciences, said that drinking more than just one glass a day of fruit juice can lead to an increased risk of diabetes.

They have also argued that fruit juices should not be included in the current five-a-day guidelines as high intake is "counter-productive" to a healthy lifestyle.

Mr Sattar, who is Professor of Metabolic Medicine, said: "Fruit juice has a similar energy density and sugar content to other sugary drinks.

"For example, 250ml of apple juice typically contains 110 kcal and 26g of sugar, and 250ml of cola typically contains 105kcal and 26.5g of sugar.

"Additionally, by contrast with the evidence for solid fruit intake, for which high consumption is generally associated with reduced or neutral risk of diabetes, current evidence suggests high fruit juice intake is associated with increased risk of diabetes."

Writing in the Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology journal, they called for more comprehensive labelling of high-sugar fruit juices to help the public make more informed decisions about their diet.

It comes amid a debate about whether sugar is as bad as tobacco or alcohol and should be treated as a public health issue in the same way.

Doctors told Westminster last month that the obesity crisis could be stopped within five years if the industry cut the amount of sugar it put into food by 30%.

[gerrymcd]

I thought this was is alreadly fairly well established/accepted conclusion (for example, see articles/talks by Robert Lustig at UCSF). 

[Mary]

Yeah, I did Weight Watchers 8 years or so ago and fruit juice was about as welcome there as sugared soda, so I just have always avoided it.  Even before then, it just felt like empty calories so I never drank much and never offered it to my daughter much.  If I'm going to ingest hundreds of calories, I want to enjoy it a lot more than I enjoy fruit juice.  

[LCHFmom]

COULD NOT AGREE MORE !

Has anyone looked at fruit juice sugar content lately?  I am really trying to hold back here and not go on my rant about "whose- who" of sugar loading their drinks for kids  (even thought these drinks are touted as organic, 100% natural, etc etc etc ) ..

I have 3 children in school and we pack their lunches daily. We only give our children two choices for their lunches - both item containing less than 8g/ sugar per container.  Everything else I have seen contains between 17g-27g sugar Per Container!   Um... thats more than my daily allowance of carbs, let alone sugar...

I fear for the families in society that cannot see past "100% juice" , " fortified with ..." , "100% vitamins x,y,z" .  These labels lead families to believe these are healthy - ad nare in fact .. NOT.

Thanks for letting me speak!!

[gerrymcd]

27grams of sugar!   Thats about the same as 3 donuts!  

[WendyB]

I agree they contain sugar.

I would rather eat the fruit instead. Its more filling

[gerrymcd]

Its the combination of high concentrations of fruit sugar in the absence of fibre.  When we eat the fruit the fibre helps prevent rapid adsoption of the sugar in our gut - in comparison the sudden loading of sugar from juice can lead to out metabolism getting 'overloaded', ending up in insulin spikes, fat being deposited in the liver, etc.

[slysam]

First, even if the sugar content is the same a soda and fruit juice are not equal. The fruit juice (assuming it is pure juice) will have vitamins and minerals not present in the soda. This makes little difference for weight loss or blood sugar regulation, but may for health. Of course, I do think it is better to eat actual fruit rather than drink the juice. The fruit contains fiber which as mentioned slows absorption and helps regulate blood sugar. People have had weight loss and health benefits drinking juice. Have you seen the documentary "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead"? The main character and others in it lived off nothing but fruit and vegetable juice for sometimes long periods of time (I think more than a year). His reasoning was that the juice has the vitamins and minerals of many more servings of fruit and vegetables than he would have eaten. I actually wondered if he would have been better off eating whole fruits and vegetables during that time, but he would not have gotten an many of the micronutrients (vitamins and minerals). He had amazing results, none the less. Well, a lot of his juice was freshly juiced vegetables which would not have the high sugar content--but some of it was fruit. A lot of people have had good weight control and health drinking fruit juice and smoothies (well smoothies have the fiber still so are a little different). Not everyone has blood sugar regulation issues. I do think it is a good diet strategy to limit or avoid calorie dense drinks for a lot fo people. The main reason is we don't feel satiated from drinks so may end up consuming more calories, the sugars we drink tend to be more quickly absorbed and we are usually not getting the beneficial fiber. But that isn't the same as saying fruit juice and soda are the same--they have have similar sugar and calories per volume but one has vitamins, minerals and antioxidants, etc that the other is void of. There have been studies indicating that just about every recognized food is good for you or bad for you depending on which details they are looking at. Health, fitness and nutrition studies contradict each other all the time and go through trend cycles. In terms of what works for any individual, it si about balance and a little trial and error of what works for your body. A lot of slim, fit people are involved in "juicing"--so just saying (I am not a juicer, I sometimes make fruit juice but it isnt a regular thing for me, I am more of a smoothie fan, but uusally just in the summer).

[slysam]

I do agree it is good for people to consider the sugar content they are ingesting from any source including juice. And I don't drink more than a glass a day or even one every day. I suppose it is good for parents to consider as some do give their children a lot of juice. I just don't think it is the same as drinking soda as a whole. But I agree it is usually better to include an apple in a pack lunch over an apple juice box.

[Mary]

I think the juice-only folks would be much better off eating food.  Everything I've read says that your body just eliminates the vitamins and minerals in excess of what it needs.  People in developed countries are generally not lacking in vitamins and minerals.  Multivitamins are proven to do nothing in people who have access to a variety of foods.  

I think juice fasting would make it tough to maintain's one's weight loss, for the same reasons any other extreme diet would.  If you don't confront how/why in your normal daily diet you're overeating, odds are you'll go right back to your normal daily diet once the fast is over.  And if you're starved for actual foods, which would be the norm, you probably would struggle even harder not to overeat.  Or at least I would.  

[gerrymcd]

Our bodies eliminate excess water soluble vitamins easily, the problem arises with fat soluble vitamins -- taking an excess of those can cause health problems.   Its quite eyeopening to read the ingredients on a some bottles of multivitamins and see concentrations many times higher than the recommended daily dose -- "if a little is good, more must be even better!"

I've heard many times 'Americans have the most expensive urine in the world' given the amount of expensive vitamins we flush down the toilet! 

[Gandhi]

Hi Everyone 

Its really nice to see so many responses coming in for my post about Fruit Juices.....

I am really glad that fitbitters are getting better, fitter , more aware of health issues every day and also helping others

Keep posting 

Wonderfull to be in this group.

[LissaT]

Hoping you all can help me out, I've been wondering about this.... 

So, I understand Fruit > Fruit Juice (more fiber, more filling, etc.) What about the green smoothies for breakfast? I've made them before and they seemed healthy... but when you put the fruit in the blender, is that also removing the benefits of eating whole fruit as oppossed to the juice? 

[gerrymcd]

Smothies made in a blender retain all of the fibre - everything you put into the blender jug goes into your glass.  Whereas most of the fibre (and nutrients in the skins, etc) remain in a basket in a i machine.

In nutritional terms there is no difference between drinking a green smoothie or eating the stuff you blended.  That said, many people argue the process of blending 'unlocks' vitamin/nutrients and makes them more available for absorption by your body (ie more easily digested).  Plus, you can consume a lot more 'greens' in a smothie than you would probably eat.  

So as long as you are sticking to mostly leafy green veggies, your smoothie will indeed be a very healthy, reasonably low calorie breakfast.

[LissaT]

Thank you so much!! That is good to know! When I did make them in the past, I filled them up with spinach and other veggies, then a little bit of fruit to sweeten it up. I will feel much better making these now 🙂 Thanks for the info! 

[gerrymcd]

If you want to keep your green smoothie really low in calories try adding cucumber or celery. That will offset any bitterness without adding much sugar.

[Mary]

My green smoothies get way up there in calories very easily, so it's a good idea to tally them up occasionally.  I have no problem making a 400-500 calorie smoothie that is 'just' spinach, OJ, banana, berries, protein powder.  It's not like I'm sticking avocados or sugar in them, it just adds up.  Of course, I usually end up with enough for two servings but they're never good later.  

"Most expensive urine"- haha.  I have a good friend who tries to convince me to drink these expensive vitamin drinks he has each morning by telling me how two hours after it his pee is bright yellow.  I tell him that's his body removing all those expensive vitamins, not turning them into superhero pee!  

The book Super Freakonomics says, "Be the kind of person who takes a multivitamin if you want to live longer, but save your money."  People who take them DO live longer but it's not causal.  People who take them are the people that can afford them and are health conscious overall, which is why they live longer.  

[slysam]

Thanks for posting the article Gandhi. Great discussion. To the posters about smoothies. Thanks for the tip about cucumber, when I do green smoothies I am mostly using fruit with either kale or spinach. I do like it because I wouldn't normally eat as much of these vegetables otherwise, but as mentioned I mainly do smoothies in the summer so not really now anyway. I do think smoothies are a little different than filtered juice because you still have the fiber. But... My point with the juice was that juice does have some benefits (vitamins, etc.) that the sodas they are compared to do not have. I am not saying people should drink juice all day or even have to drink any if they prefer not to. Just it isn't the same, the study was comparing the sugar content and energy (calories) for the same volume--I know lots of people who regularly drink 32 ounce sodas in a day--I am not sure I know anyone who would drink that quantitiy of fruit juice (though it seems some children may be drinking a lot though their cups are usually quite small so not sure how it adds up). Sipping sugary drinks (including juice) all day can be a problem for all sorts of reasons including dental health as well as the blood sugar issue. I am just not sure that the typical juice drinker would be consuming the same volume per day as the typical soda drinker (I realize the 32 ounce big gulp is not the average, But I do know others who seem more normal who drink a can or two every day and I don't think it would be typical for juice drinkers to actually drink the same quantity). The study said people who drink more than one serving of juice. Anyway smoothies are different than filtered juice though the sugar content and energy density may be similar (that seems to be what this study was lookign at). I do think one can possibly over consume smoothies as they can be quite high in calories. I am surprised sometimes when I make a smoothie and enter my exact ingredients into the Spark at how high the calorie content is! For that reason, I would probably be careful about drinking too many as a snack and tend to consider them a meal or part of a meal. If I want it to keep me relatively satisfied for longer I do put some high calorie ingredients like plain greek yogurt or natural peanut or nut butter (the type that is just ground nuts). Of course that does drive the calorie content higher. I am surprised how amny servings of veg and fruit and how much fiber I take in if I drink a smoothie though. And it doesn't seem to hinder resutls for me. I don't think eating (or drinking) foods that are rich in vitamins and minerals is the same as taking vitamin supplements. The supplements would have the nutrient isolated while the actual foods would have it in the context of other natural chemicals (not meaning in a bad way) contained in the food that may somehow add to the benefit. I am not sure we know everything yet about human health, nutrition, fitness (hence why studies seem to contradict each other and recommendations cycle periodically). Even vitamins, there are some studies that claim people who take supplements are healthier but there was another that said people who take supplements are more likely to die in the year (or whatever time period they used). That seems a pretty big contradiction, I believe both of those came from statistics not controlled studies.

[Gandhi]

Slysam

Thanks for the kind words

Fantastic write up .

[StefK]

I think the whole discussion about homemade fruit juices and smoothies is a question of moderation and content.

I regularly juice carrots, beets and ONE apple to make a juice. I am aware of carrots having a high sugar content. I give my kids ONE little glass per day and I use a bit of the juice in a blender with 400g spinach to make a morning smoothie for myself. I also add protein powder and a bit of flax seeds. The calorie content adds up to 440cal, but then it replaces my breakfast and quite a bit of my lunch.I would never eat 400g of spinach in one day, not even in two or three. My kids do not like veggies very much and the juice gives them a bit of vitamins.

Re the intake of supplements:

I am against a generalisation of "multivitamins are good" or "they are bad":

For example women of a "certain age" require more calcium and vitamin D than a lot of older people

get in their diets. The National Osteoporosis Foundation recommends 1,200 milligrams of dietary

calcium and 400-800 international units of vitamin D daily to maintain bone health (By Stone, Lorraine M.; Lyles, Kenneth W. Academic journal article from Generations, Vol. 30, No. 3)

Or women who want to get pregnant:

Research strongly supports the role of folic acid supplementation in reducing the risk of neural tube defects, such as spina bifida. A pregnant female who previously delivered an infant with a neural tube defect may be prescribed a therapeutic folic acid dose that's 10 times the normal requirement to reduce the chance of recurrence. To help prevent such defects, females of childbearing age capable of getting pregnant should get least 400 mcg of folic acid daily, either in supplement form or through fortified foods

or other foods rich in this nutrient. … (By Heinlein, Catherine R. Magazine article from American Nurse Today, Vol. 8, No. 4)

A study from 2012 showed that multivitamins can reduce the risk of cancer by 8%: The study was published online in the Journal of the American Medical Association to coincide 

with its presentation at the Annual American Association for Cancer Research's Frontiers in 

Cancer Prevention Research meeting.

Analysis of the data found men taking a multivitamin had a modest 8 per cent reduction in total cancer 

incidence, includingcolorectal, lung and bladder. Although the main reason to take multivitamins is to 

prevent nutritional deficiency, these data provide support for thepotential use of multivitamin supplements 

in the prevention of cancer in middle-aged

I agree that multivitamins are not necessary if you eat very healthy. Nevertheless, I doubt that the majority of people are getting sufficient nutrients through their diet, be it because the veggies have been in the fridge for a prolongued time or because most of the stuff we eat has been treated with pesticides (fruits and veggies) or are processed foods that contain lot's of ingredients that are unhealthy.

Before somebody suggest to buy organic foods to avoid pesticides, the advantages of organic food have been highly discussed and disputed:

From a Stanford study:

The authors concluded that the studies reviewed do not support what they call the "widespread perception" that organic foods overall are nutritionally superior to conventional ones, although eating an organic diet may reduce exposures to pesticides and antibiotic-resistant bacteria. (By Holzman, David C.
Academic journal article from Environmental Health Perspectives, Vol. 120, No. 12)

A 2002 Consumers Union study showed that organically grown produce consistently had one-third as many pesticide residues as conventionally grown produce and was far less likely to contain multiple pesticide residues (Baker et al. 2002; Consumers Union 2002)...(Still pesticides)

What about nutritional content? There is mixed evidence that organic fruits and veggies are more nutritious than those grown conventionally (WebMD 2004)--and because a plant's nutrient content depends on soil condition, sunlight, rainfall, and seed variety (whether it's organic or not), a

general answer to this question is difficult to come by. (By: Liberatore, Stephanie | The Science Teacher, October 2010 )

Overall, I think the intake of supplements must be individually judged and can't be demonised per se. Juicing or not is a question of ingredients and moderation in my opinion and it can be very beneficial for some, particularly for those who do not follow a healthy diet.

Stef.