Fruit juice woo rant

tracengel

So I need a sanity check. i love freshly squeezed fruit juice. But everything I read about it is panic about the amount of sugar in a glass of apple juice, for instance, vs an apple. "Avoid fruit juice" and so on. I usually tend to avoid health websites etc as they're full of woo and I like common sense, but I also like to find new recipes etc so I'm forced to ingest woo if I want to get the recipe.

Now to me - OBVIOUSLY there's more sugar in a glass of fruit juice, cos it takes, say 4 apples to make a glass. If you ate 4 apples, you'd get the same amount of sugar, right?
The sugar to fibre ratio is more for juice, as you're not taking in the fibre, so I get that there's less nutritional value in that area.

But I'm not replacing my whole fruits or veg with fruit juice - I'm still eating those - I love whole fruit and veg and eat a lot of it. I'm having the fruit juice instead of, say, a glass of Coke or something else with less nutritional value.

Calories-wise, it's not an issue for me, I will have it if it fits in. But nutrition wise - SURELY fruit juice is a better choice than something else? Yes, more sugar, but if I ate those 4 apples there'd be loads of sugar too and nobody would be writing pearl-clutching blog posts about that? (I do use my juice pulp too, in all sorts of recipes, so am still getting that fibre in at some point anyway)

I'm just grumpy at what seems to me to be people missing the point and not doing basic maths. Or maybe *I'm* missing something?

ghudson92

Unless you have a medical condition that requires you to limit your sugar intake then there is no issue with you having a glass of apple juice.

BarbaraHelen2013

Absolutely, unless you have a medical directive to reduce your sugar intake then there is nothing intrinsically wrong with fruit juice. If it fits in your calories and other goals then don’t worry about what this or that website says.

I think what you’re seeing is good general advice for people who are not as clued up on nutrition as you are. Many people think that they can drink fruit juice with abandon because ‘it’s healthy, right’ without appreciating the fact that, as you’ve said, it takes 4 apples to produce that glass and they’d not sit down and eat 4 apples at a time. The impact of calories, fibre etc are an unknown concept to much of the population.

Totally get the frustration!

GrizzledSquirrel

I hear you!

I suspect the backlash was initially against “juicing” whereby people were replacing whole meals (or entire diets) with juiced rather than whole foods. Unfortunately, this seems to have morphed into attacks against those simply enjoying juice as part of a balanced diet, which misses the point entirely.

It seems that the art of a nuanced argument isn’t one that’s generally celebrated in the online world of 280 character restrictions. Ironic seeing as the WWW was initially created for scientists to share information and research.

How far we have fallen.

missysippy930

If you are trying to lose weight it’s up to you how you spend your calories. If you choose juice, that’s perfectly fine. Many people choose not to drink their calories. Not many would eat 4 apples though. It’s your life, your choices, do what is right for you and works for you. We are all different. Ignore others that frustrate you. You can find expert agreement with anything on the internet.

earlnabby

It is all part of the anti any sugar campaign. Sugar is the evil du jour so common sense advice like "eating whole fruit instead of juice gives you more fiber and less sugar" morphs into "don't drink any juice at any time because of the sugar". So typical: take a bit of true information and make it extreme so you feed into general fear.

There is a place for juice in many people's food allowance. Many other people choose to not drink it because the macros do not fit their budget. Whatever works for you.

(Personally I am in the no-juice camp because I am T2Dm and need to moderate my total carbs. No juice gives me more space for bread or potatoes. The exception is mimosas. I will make a place for them any day I am having a special brunch/lunch/holiday dinner. I would never tell someone they shouldn't include juice, I trust they are mature enough to make their own decisions.)

Terytha

Yeah, I had a doctor make a face and get all upset because my breakfast is usually an apple unless its December when I eat oranges. Because sugar oh noes!

Ridiculous. Fruit is an important part of an omnivore's diet. Fruit juice in moderation (like most foods) is great, lots of vitamins and hydration.

The downside to fruit juice (as I understand it) is that with all that sugar and no fiber, your blood sugar would spike. If you aren't watching your blood sugar though, whatever. It goes back to normal.

MikePTY

Once you realize that most nutrition advice is not written for calorie counters, you will have a lot more peace with it. Nutrtion advice is generally directed at people who just eat until they feel full, without measuring and logging things. In these cases, the recommendation against fruit juices has some merit. Because fruit juice and other sugary drinks are caloric and don't tend to make you feel fuller, a person who was just eating until they felt full would probably eat the same amount of calories whether or not they drank juice. So if they drink a few cups of juice a day, that several hundred extra calories vs. not drinking juice. So it can contribute to obesity in that way for someone who isn't tracking.

This is why they don't warn against fruit the same way, because with fiber many fruits tend to be pretty filling, so if a person eats a piece of fruit, it is likely to replace something else they are eating. So a normal eater is less likely to go into a calorie surplus with eating vs juicing.

But as you mentioned, you count your calories and your glass of juice fits within your goal for the day. Because you are tracking and do not find that the juice makes you go over your goal, you can drink it guilt free 🙂.

One of the wonders of calorie counting is that we are freed from the vast majority of weight loss "advice" out there, since it is directed at people who don't know how many calories they are consuming.

lemurcat2

Like others have said, it's advice that's more meant for people who don't track cals. The idea is that you might assume juice is something that can be consumed freely, since micronutrients, and get lots of cals. For many people, calories you drink or just sugar, no fiber will not be not filling, also. Personally I rarely drink juice because I prefer to consume my cals in other ways, but occasionally I just want some, so do. Since it's always with breakfast, the fact the juice on its own wouldn't be filling for me doesn't matter.

You get the same type of feedback about smoothies -- some are absolutely convinced calories one drinks cannot be filling. Personally, I find the smoothies I make filling and that I drink them doesn't make a difference, so I ignore the people who insist you should not consume cals in that way. It very well may be true for some, but not for me.

neugebauer52

I mix fruit with vegetable juice for a different flavour.