Drinking one glass or more of 100% fruit juice each day is associated with weight gain in children and adults, according to a new analysis of 42 previous studies.
The research, published Tuesday in JAMA Pediatrics, found a positive association between drinking 100% fruit juice and BMI — a calculation that takes into account weight and height — among kids. It also found an association between daily consumption of 100% fruit juice with weight gain among adults.
100% fruit juice was defined as fruit juices with no added sugar.
This seems like it would be really obvious, no?
If you are simply buying fruit juices at the store you are getting zero to virtually zero fiber. So you are getting a bunch of calories but without feeling any sense of fullness that you would get if you instead just ate the fruit.
Fruit is healthy but you are much better off just eating the fruit and drinking water. If you really want to drink the fruit juice you should just blend the fruit so that you are also getting all the pulp. The fiber is excellent for you and will help prevent you from turning all that juice into “empty” calories.
It’s obvious to anyone who has thought about it, yes. Unfortunately there’s a larger than you expect percentage of people out there who just think “fruit healthy” and that’s where the thought ends
my dad, who is quite overweight, would order the sweet potato french fries at Culver’s, after I told him to eat healthier. My mom even supported him - “those are SWEET POTATO fries! that’s healthy!”. I told them that’s not how it works, and it just made them angry.
It doesn’t help that government recommendations have been based on either terrible research or straight up from lobbying groups for so many decades.
The old food pyramid was insane. Nuts, beans, and red meat all being lumped in the protein category, while all fats and sweets were considered the same. Sugar was just considered a carbohydrate, whether it came from fruits or from soda (high fructose corn syrup). The categories were displayed and expressed as hard lines and there was no nuance at all. Not to mention bread, cereal, rice, pasta all being the largest category… and an entire category for just milk-based items.
For many people the government recommendation is just taken at face value, often just because that is what they’re taught in school.
The update makes a bit more sense (though they are still telling you to drink milk at every meal) but I miss my 11 servings of pasta per day…
https://www.myplate.gov/myplate-plan
Check the Canadian guide, they finally did it without asking for input from the various food lobbies…
Interesting!
Surprisingly similar to the US one, just without the Milk Lobby influence. “Make water your drink of choice” would improve so many people’s lives.
Digging into the US guidelines it says that “93% of Americans are not getting enough dairy.” #ThatIsALie
Unfortunately there’s a larger than you expect percentage of people out there who just think “fruit healthy” and that’s where the thought ends
Totally fair point. As usual I tend to overestimate the general public.
One of my friends was staying with me for a few days. She bought 2 half gallons of apple juice (buy one, get one) and she was saying how much she loved it, how healthy it was, and she switched over from soda a while ago. I commented that it’s not really healthy per se because it still contains nearly as much sugar as soda, she didn’t disagree but still said that drinking apple juice just seems healthier since it’s from a fruit.
what does “healthy” even mean in this context exactly? like if i eat 3 apples tomorrow will i tangibly actually feel different? what about every day for a week? month? what exactly are people getting out of this other than the placebo effect from the word ‘healthy’
If you really want to drink the fruit juice you should just blend the fruit so that you are also getting all the pulp.
Thanks for reminding me I need to go to my local taqueria and get an agua fresca o7
this is why, while i love fruit smoothies, i also make sure to also add some granola and/or flax seed for extra fiber.
helps me save on t-p, too!
If you like banana smoothies, peanut butter is another great way to round it out a bit more. And yknow, make it taste all the better because peanut butter fucks.
Freeze the banana and then blend the frozen banana with peanut butter and a little almond/oat/other plant milk and it’s like a milkshake without the dairy. Amazingly good!
If you’re adding plant milk, surely it is a milkshake?
True 😆
WATER motherfuckers, water
Watermelon juice? Okay, I’ll give it a try.
Hasn’t this been well known for a couple decades now? Or is this just confirmation of that?
Replace fruit juice with soda in the title and no doubt it’s a slam dunk, but I personally didn’t realize how much sugar’s in fruit drinks until I entered it into a calorie tracker. I’m guessing fruit juice is slightly less bad compared to soda, but I wouldn’t be surprised to learn most people are oblivious to how “not good” fruit juice is for them. Probably some, “Well, fruit is good for me, so fruit juice must be okay, too.”
This has been a pet peeve of mine for years, but I’ve never voiced it because I didn’t feel like taking on the “you’re an idiot” stares.
But seriously, I drink a diet soda and I’m supposed to feel shitty because “soda is bad” while someone chugs a sugary glass of juice and that’s supposed to be healthier? Can I compromise and drink a Fresca? Lol
Fresca fucks
Why specifically 100% fruit juice?
Edit: I learned to read. It’s because of the no added sugar.
Added sugar is a problem when it’s added to things that don’t need it. The best way to mitigate this isn’t with a sugar tax, but to tax per calorie in the finished food for any amount of added sugar.
“It’s good for you! Here, have some more!”
– American households with no concept of portion control
We give our kids those horizon uht whole milk drinks like everyday. It’s milk which is basically sugar, fat, protein, and a few other things. Is this going to cause a similar issue? We also have the siggi yogurt…
Nutritional values are nutritional values, weight is gained by regularly ingesting too many calories, no matter the source. There’s benefits to milk but if your kids have a healthy diet in general they shouldn’t need to drink it.
It’s easy to consume too many calories with liquids. I’m sure it’s fine I’m moderation, especially so if your kids love active lifestyles.
It’s bad to take the fiber out of sugar bombs? Who knew?
Sugar bobs with fiber are still sugar bombs.
Grapefruit juice is an exception to this
One word solution:
Fiber
Yep this was my take. Went to Cartagena de Indias in Colombia where people kinda don’t drink water, it’s all juice. Guess what a week+ of juice 3x a day gets you? REALLY BAD CONSTIPATION.
