If the sugar is over the allowed amount, does it really count if it's juice?

CSU2012

If I'm over by 22 grams of sugar because I drank a glass of juice that was 22 grams of sugar, and the orange juice was just juice without added sugar, then does it really count as my having gone over?

sbelletti

Yup

Lietchi

Well yes, purely based on the numbers. But where did those other sugars come from that contributed to you going over? Added sugars are mostly the ones to avoid. Within the natural sugars, I do personally consider fruit to be superior to fruit juice.

cwolfman13

CSU2012 wrote: »

If I'm over by 22 grams of sugar because I drank a glass of juice that was 22 grams of sugar, and the orange juice was just juice without added sugar, then does it really count as my having gone over?

Sugar is sugar. Your body doesn't know if it's added or naturally occurring. You are getting more vitamins and minerals with your fruit juice than with a soda or something, but that doesn't negate the sugar content. I would also look at things in the context of your diet as a whole. Like I drink freshly squeezed orange juice which has a high sugar content, but I only drink it on Sunday mornings with Sunday breakfast...so in that context it's not particularly relevant. Also, eating fruit rather than drinking juice (which requires multiple fruits to make) is going to be lower in sugar and have the benefit of fiber.

In and of itself, sugar isn't a big deal in moderate amounts outside of certain medical conditions...but massive overconsumption is, and most of that comes from sweets and things with added sugar...but I'd also include fruit juice as a caveat to that. In terms of sugar, it's not much different than drinking a soda.

Xellercin

Juice is pretty much just sugar water and a pile of additives. If you read about how orange juice is made, it doesn't even get it's taste from oranges. It's kept in a metal vat for so long that it loses all flavour and has to have the orange taste and smell added back into it with custom perfumes made by literal perfume companies. They use different orange "flavour packs" for the US vs other markets because Americans like a particular taste to their OJ.

It's not even real. So drink it if you love it, but don't conceptualize it as anything other than an ultra processed sugar beverage.

Source: the book "Squeezed: What You Don't Know About Orange Juice" by Alissa Hamilton, published by Yale University

So yeah...it's basically pop without the bubbles.

cwolfman13

Xellercin wrote: »

Juice is pretty much just sugar water and a pile of additives. If you read about how orange juice is made, it doesn't even get it's taste from oranges. It's kept in a metal vat for so long that it loses all flavour and has to have the orange taste and smell added back into it with custom perfumes made by literal perfume companies. They use different orange "flavour packs" for the US vs other markets because Americans like a particular taste to their OJ.

It's not even real. So drink it if you love it, but don't conceptualize it as anything other than an ultra processed sugar beverage.

Source: the book "Squeezed: What You Don't Know About Orange Juice" by Alissa Hamilton, published by Yale University

So yeah...it's basically pop without the bubbles.

I'm going to look into this more, but it makes sense and from what little I've read so far seems pretty valid. Interestingly, we usually make fresh squeezed orange juice on Sunday mornings from oranges for Sunday breakfast. This time of year is especially great because my mother in law in Tuscon has an orange tree and she brings a ton to us over Christmas, so they're just extra delicious. My kids are funny because they say it just tastes like oranges, not orange juice...even though they see us squeezing the juice from the oranges. The color is also much different than the stuff on the shelf. We still get them Simply Orange from time to time...usually camping...but yeah, the taste is completely different.

Xellercin

cwolfman13 wrote: »

Xellercin wrote: »

Juice is pretty much just sugar water and a pile of additives. If you read about how orange juice is made, it doesn't even get it's taste from oranges. It's kept in a metal vat for so long that it loses all flavour and has to have the orange taste and smell added back into it with custom perfumes made by literal perfume companies. They use different orange "flavour packs" for the US vs other markets because Americans like a particular taste to their OJ.

It's not even real. So drink it if you love it, but don't conceptualize it as anything other than an ultra processed sugar beverage.

Source: the book "Squeezed: What You Don't Know About Orange Juice" by Alissa Hamilton, published by Yale University

So yeah...it's basically pop without the bubbles.

I'm going to look into this more, but it makes sense and from what little I've read so far seems pretty valid. Interestingly, we usually make fresh squeezed orange juice on Sunday mornings from oranges for Sunday breakfast. This time of year is especially great because my mother in law in Tuscon has an orange tree and she brings a ton to us over Christmas, so they're just extra delicious. My kids are funny because they say it just tastes like oranges, not orange juice...even though they see us squeezing the juice from the oranges. The color is also much different than the stuff on the shelf. We still get them Simply Orange from time to time...usually camping...but yeah, the taste is completely different.

Lol, I love how someone disagreed with me despite the fact that I posted a very high quality citation of an entire book published by an Ivy League university on this very specific topic, and didn't say anything that isn't easily verifiable with minimal effort.

The info is readily available if you want to take a look, and the book itself is well written and fun to read for an academic publication. It was heavily reported in the media back when the book was released, so of you don't want to read the book, which is quite dense, many articles will cite the best excerpts. That's why I knew about it in the first place. I remember seeing multiple articles at the time talking about orange juice perfume.

I was so fascinated because I have always hated orange juice and have always said that it tastes nothing like oranges. Then I traveled to the US and found that orange juice there tastes completely different. Still nothing like oranges, just more intense. More like those vitamin C chewables we used to get as kids.

So when I read all of the press about the book when it came out, it really resonated with me. I'm ultra sensitive to perfumes and artificial flavours, which is why I couldn't stand orange juice, or any juice for that matter as a child. But I was perfectly happy eating oranges.

I made orange juice once from oranges, drank it, shrugged and thought "yep, that tastes like orange" and then never made it again, because I still prefer to eat fruit than drink it.