Instead, we look at the benefits of overall consumption – which is something we must start to do with fruit juice. Nobody suggests that we should not eat meat or fish because they do not contain fibre. The convenience of a drink allows consumption when it is impractical to eat fruit. We drink because we’re thirsty not because we want to eat more fruit. If you stop drinking juice for breakfast you will replace it with another drink. But it’s improbable that juice and intact fruit are often alternatives. There is a view that if people don’t drink juice, they will instead eat more intact fruit and the fibre that goes with it.
As the Mayo Clinic has pointed out, although fruit juice “contains most of the vitamins, minerals and plant chemicals (phytonutrients) found in the whole fruit … healthy fiber is lost during most juicing”.įibre helps to prevent diabetes, heart disease and some forms of cancer, but the Western diet doesn’t provide enough. Loss of fibreīut what about fibre? A second argument for not drinking juice is that it provides less dietary fibre than intact fruit. Similarly, greater levels of carotenoids in the blood have been related to a reduced rate of breast cancer. A summary of studies linked them with a lower risk of developing oral and laryngeal cancer. And intake of anthocyanidins – another polyphenol – reduces the risk of developing diabetes.įinally, carotenoids (responsible for orange, yellow and red colourings) have been associated with lower cancer risks. A summary of 22 studies of flavonoids (a type of polyphenol) found that high intake cuts the risk of premature death by a quarter. Polyphenols – which gives fruit its red, purple and blue colours – have antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-viral properties. Vitamin C, in particular, has been associated with reduced blood pressure, lower risk of heart disease and a better life expectancy for men. Juices contain many health-promoting nutrients – such as vitamin C, polyphenols and carotenoids – that occur only to limited extents in sugar-sweetened drinks.
Juicing retains many of the health benefits associated with the original fruit. Although fruit juice does contain sugar it should not be viewed as similar to sugar-containing drinks. The fear is that because fruit juice contains naturally occurring sugar, it increases the risk of obesity. But their concerns rely on an analogy with sugar-sweetened fizzy drinks, and confusion over what a fruit juice actually is. Yet despite these benefits, several pressure groups and other organisations still suggest that juice should not be part of our diet. While a national nutritional survey in the US found that adults who drink pure juice were at a lower risk of obesity and had better insulin sensitivity. The Food4Me study, funded by the European Commission, revealed that lower weight was associated with a greater intake of fruits, vegetables and fruit juice. Research has shown that drinking pure juice can be good for us. This is despite the Global Burden of Disease study concluding that a poor diet is responsible for one in five deaths and suggesting that greater health benefits might result from increasing consumption of whole grains, nuts, fruit and vegetables rather than concentrating on reducing the intake of sugar and fat. Yet several surveys have shown that few people meet this target.
Most of us have heard we should be eating five portions of fruit and vegetables a day. But fruit juice avoids the problems of intact fruit while providing the same range of health-promoting chemicals. Major reasons for not consuming fruit are that it involves effort and it is often inconvenient. But, as we argue in our recently published paper, fruit juice should not be cut from our diets. Increasingly, fruit juices are seen as junk foods, and consumption is falling. Fruit juice was once viewed as part of a healthy diet, but today it is often seen as supplying little more than a high dose of sugar.
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