Juices Are Not Health Foods
by Gabe
Mirkin, M.D.
zone3
Contrary to the ads that you may see on television, juices are not more
healthful than whole fruits or vegetables. How can an extract from food be
more healthful than that food? For some people, they are much less
healthful. For example, a glass of orange juice contains about one tenth
as much fiber as an orange and twice the calories. Diabetics shouldn't
drink fruit juices because they drive blood sugar levels too high, nor
should people who are trying to lose weight drink fruit juices because a
rise in sugar calls out extra insulin that makes you hungry.
Don't be fooled by juices that claim that they supply 100 percent of
your daily needs for vitamin C and A. Most drinks that can make that claim
have artificial vitamins added to the drink and are no better for you than
juices that have only 10 percent of your daily requirements. Adding
calcium to fruit juices is reasonable because there are no known harmful
effects and some people do not get enough calcium from other foods that
they eat.
There is no known advantage or disadvantage to drinking fruit juice
that has first had water removed to form a concentrate and then had the
water added back in to form the juice. This process does not destroy
nutrients, nor does it add any.
It really doesn't make much difference whether you drink juice that is
100 percent fruit juice or made from 50 percent sugar water and 50 percent
juice. Some fruits have higher water and sugar content; others must have
water or sugar or both added to make them palatable. All juices contain
around 8 to 10 percent sugar because that's the concentration of sugar
that tastes best and that most people prefer. "All fruit" juices often use
added sugars extracted from grapes, apples or other fruits rather than
from sugar cane. There is no difference between any type of sugar added to
a diluted fruit juice and the sugar that was originally in the fruit. Both
are lower in fiber than the fruit, so they both cheat you of fiber, and
since they both contain the same amount of sugar, they affect diabetics
and obese people in the same bad way by driving their blood sugars
higher.
Pasteurized means that the fruit juice was heated to kill germs. You
are less likely to be infected with E coli from a pasteurized drink and
pasteurization does not reduce the amount of nutrients in a drink.
Ultraviolet light, freezing, dehydrating and bubbling ozone through a
drink get rid of germs and do not reduce nutrients.
The bottom line is to eat whole fruits and vegetables, and drink juices
if you can afford the extra calories and sugar. You gain nothing extra
from juicing, and diabetics and overweight people should restrict their
intake of juices because they are not much more than sugared water
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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