While many of us reach for a fruit juice with the intention to enjoy a healthy drink, it might be time to remove those from our fridge.
We were always told that fruit is a healthy snack. And for the most part, it is! But, when you blend these fruits up and consume them in the form of juice, do these same health benefits apply?
There is reason to believe that fruit juices actually have more sinister affects on our bodies than you may realize. We’ll explain why that is, and how you can go about getting the nutritional benefits of fruit without the adverse affects.
What Is The Problem With Fruit Juices?
The problem with fruit juices mostly stems from the sugar content. This isn’t unique to the juice, though. Fruit in general – apples, oranges and other citrus fruits, etc. – are just packed with sugar.
Specifically, fruit has an incredibly high fructose content. This type of sugar can be very harmful, leading to issues like diabetes. That’s right, something as seemingly healthy as fruit can lead to diabetes! It could also lead to obesity, heart disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and more. Even worse, there is a potential link between fructose and cancer.
Consider How Much Sugar Is In One Glass Of Fruit Juice
To put this into perspective for you, let’s consider one glass of fruit juice. We’ll just use apple juice for the example.
A 12 ounce glass contains up to 40 grams of sugar. This is pretty typical across all types of fruit juices. Orange juice contains similar sugar content, around 37 grams per glass.
However, some are worse than others. Grape juice, for example, contains an astounding 60 grams of sugar!
That is worse than most junk food, honestly. An average chocolate chip cookie has around 10 grams of sugar. That means you could eat 5-6 cookies and still be in the same boat as if you had one glass of fruit juice!
Why Fruit Juices Are Worse Than Plain Fruit
While fruit still has high sugar content, it is considerably better to eat your fruit rather than drink it. This is because of what isn’t in the juice.
When you actually eat your fruit, you benefit from all the great things it has to offer, such as fiber.
Furthermore, fruit will help fill you up, while the juice won’t. In fact, drinking fruit juice ends up leaving you hungrier than before, because of all the empty calories and sugar!
The Unnatural Process Of Extracting Juice From Fruit Commercially
We should also mention that the process of turning a fruit into a juice is totally unnatural in a commercial instance. These huge companies aren’t simply squeezing your fruit into a juice. They extract the juice, then they heat it, pasteurize it, store it in huge vats and pull the oxygen out.
Because this process removes a lot of the flavor, these companies then add a flavor pack with chemicals, byproducts, etc, to make it taste better.
The end result is a bottle of sugar with other harmful chemicals, and virtually no antioxidants, enzymes, and other healthy components whole fruit contains.
So should you avoid fruit altogether? No. But, if you are trying to enjoy a healthy snack, steer clear of the juices!
