Is Drinking Juice Really Healthy?

The Idea of a Healthy Breakfast:

We have always associated a healthy start to the morning with a glass of fruit juice instead of caffeine induced tea or coffee. This juice is often packaged and bought from the market. After all, who wants to take up the hassle of peeling some oranges every morning and grinding them for breakfast when you are running around to complete your morning chores and catch up at your work as per the schedule?

You will prefer to call your mornings healthy and power pact until you read this article. Take a minute to think if these fruit juices are really healthy? You may take your call after you get your answers right here.

Is Drinking Juice Really Healthy?

1. Fruit juices are just as harmful as sugary drink:

You may be relieved to assume to have made a healthy choice by picking up a fruit juice at a party to another sugary drink. But wait, do you really believe your fruit juice is free of sugar? It is equally loaded with sugar and sometimes even more sugary than a soft drink. Do not believe this? Well check for yourself in the content section and make a satisfactory comparison for yourself.

Sugars are added to fruit juices to preserve them after they’re packed and dispatched and you but them, until you consume it. That is the raw fact behind the sweetness of your fruit juice.

2. You are not sure of the quality of fruits that are picked:

The commercial advertisements of fruit juices on Televisions may do the best job at convincing you that they are providing you some “handpicked” versions of fruit and blending these in the best possible manner. They may also claim to fortify the juices with additional nutrients that are not present in the fruit. But, how could you be so sure? Yes, they have to maintain quality standards and need to be careful not to meddle with your health, but can you rely on the fruits used by them more than the ones that you pick yourself from the market? Think once again.

3. The processing of fruit juices defeats the purpose:

Marketing is an art to convince people to the advantage of the product that is being sold. They may also go to the extent of making false or manipulative claims in the process. The fruit juice you find at the aisle of a supermarket may not be what you think it is even if it’s labelled as “100% pure” and “not from concentrate.” After being squeezed from the fruit, the juice is usually stored in massive oxygen-depleted holding tanks for up to a year before it is packaged. This process makes the fruit juice devoid of all the flavors and the company has to add “flavor packs” to the juice to revive the lost flavor in the process.

So no matter how much you’re spending at trying to be prudent while choosing a drink, you are just picking up a sugar infused flavored fruit juice.

4. Fruit Juices have no fiber:

The highlighting feature of a fruit is the fiber that it contains. This fiber is not retained while making fruit juices. It may thus not continue to be as healthy for your stomach as it may claim. Even on comparison with the whole fruit, a whole fruit is filled with fiber unlike fruit juice.

5. You are consuming far more calories than whole fruit:

Lets start with an example, one 8-ounce cup of fresh orange juice has 21 grams of sugar and 112 calories. By comparison, one medium orange has 12 grams of sugar and only 62 calories. Similarly, a cup of cranberry juice has 28 grams of sugar and 110 calories, but a cup of whole cranberries has only 4 grams of sugar and 46 calories. The counts for grape juice are even higher, with 36 grams of sugar and 140 calories per 8-ounce cup.

6. The sugar loaded fruit juice kills other nutritional benefits:

Your fruit juice may contain vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and a whole lot of goodies. However, it contains ample amount of sugar to overshadow any of these nutrients. The damage caused by sugar is enough to surpass any advantage that your body may receive by other added vitamins and minerals and such nutrients. Make a wise pick before you head for a fruit Juice.

7. Consuming massive amounts of sugar from fruit juice is easier:

Eating a whole fruit puts the body to making an effort to swallow them. The sugar inside a whole fruit takes time to breakdown and is thus metabolized slowly by your liver. Thus you may also feel satiated for a longer time.

On the contrary, in a fruit juice, even that which is freshly made at home, the sugars have already broken down. They are directly digested in your liver. This leads to more sugar being consumed than those in a whole fruit.

Drinking a large glass of fruit juice is equivalent to having various pieces of that fruit minus the fiber. Also, when the liver takes in more fructose than it can handle, some if it gets turned into fat. Some of the fat can lodge in the liver and contribute to fat buildup and insulin resistance. This is the main reason why people trying to lose weight and those with diabetes must absolutely avoid having a fruit juice and instead eat a whole fruit which provides them with all nutrients including fiber and also keeps them full for longer.

8. Fruit juices labelled with “No Preservatives” are of a deteriorated quality:

To enhance the shelf life of  a fruit juice while not adding any preservatives is not easy. The manufacturing companies have to remove all the oxygen from the juice to prevent any microbial actions on it. A fruit juice which is de-oxgenated is not exactly of a good quality.

9. Liquid calories contribute to more fat build up:

If you were to consume a bowl of a particular fruit to eat less of some other food, you would achieve your desired result. So if you consume an apple to compensate for your hunger of some other food, eating apple will automatically make you full and as a result you will eat less of the other food.

However, such is not the case with an apple juice. You may consume more amount of cut fruits but as we read above, fruit juices are simple broken sugars that are easily digested in our system. Digestion of a fruit takes more time. Thus eating a fruit makes you feel satiated while drinking fruit juice is just gulping down more sugars and calories instead. This is because the fruit juice will not compensate for the hunger of any other food that you may want to avoid. It also does not make you feel full for long and induces hunger quickly.

Several studies show that fruit juice is linked to an increased risk of obesity and type 2 diabetes, while whole fruit is linked to a decreased risk. There is thus no reason to believe that you are making a healthy choice by choosing fruit juice over another sugary drink.

10. Preserved juices are loaded with sugars:

Sugar and salt are both natural preservatives. You juices are preserved in sugar to prevent them from getting perished before they reach you.

11. Fresh fruit juice at home not healthier than the fruit itself:

Even while you make fresh fruit juice at home, with freshly chosen fruits and keeping in mind all parameters of hygiene, it still cannot match the nutrition levels of a whole fruit. In a fruit juice, you take more amount of fruit and sieve all the juice from the fiber that the fruit carries. On the contrary, eating just one whole fruit will do the job with fibers and all the nutrients intact.

The Final Verdict:

It is not all that bad to have fruit juices if only it is done occasionally. A fresh fruit juice is to be preferred over a packaged fruit juice and eating a whole fruit is the best thing you can do over a fresh fruit juice also. That way, you consume less sugars and also feel full for a longer time. Make a prudent and wise choice for your health.