Bonus readL Sugar content is unacceptably high in children’s fruit juices and smoothies. (thebiph.org) Apple juice in particular is bad; it’s effectively just sugar-water. Here’s the study.

Is Juicing Fruit Daily Bad for Us?

“All fruit juices contain as much sugar as Coke.”

Recently, a NY Times editorial declared that Juicing, Smoothies, Lemon Water might be bad for us!? [link]

Many sources linked below, more sources here, click here for more discussion. Most of the below are direct quotes taken from these linked sources, and not editorialized opinions by myself or anyone at elephant. ~ ed.

Don’t like reading stuff? Conclusion: fruit juices in moderation are healthy.

Question: “Is Orange Juice really as unhealthy as soft drinks?“

Not just orange juice, but all fruit juices contain as much sugar as Coke. Sugar in fruit is “just the way nature tricked us into eating fiber,” and without the rest of the fruit, we’re basically drinking soda.

> Pediatrician: “Eating fruit is 10x more healthy than drinking fruit juice.” Often, when we drink juice, we consume much more of it than if we were eating the fruit. This is common sense: it takes time and effort (during which we have time to get full) to peel fruit, take out the seeds, and eat only the good parts. Our brain will tell us to stop eating after a few fruits. But with juice, we can gulp down, say, eight oranges in a hot minute.

> Fiber vs. Sugar. Generally speaking, too much of a good thing isn’t good. When we drink a lot of juice, and consume too much sugar, too quickly, drinking juice is as unhealthy as soft drinks.

> Fruit is good for us. It’s Real Food! But when we consume sugar by itself, it’s not so good. When we consume the juice as part of the fruit, surrounded in fiber, it’s much healthier. So: an actual orange is better for us than its juice. > Peer-reviewed source.

> Tip: “don’t worry about the amount of fruit: look for grams of sugar. Usually anything above 15 isn’t that great. And always pay attention to the serving size. Some less-healthy products will use a small serving size to get those numbers down.” (Looking at you, juice companies). “I like to convert it to ‘per 100 ml’ or ‘per 100 g’ so I can put things into perspective and give meaningful comparisons.

OJ has a lot of sugar and acids that can harm your teeth.

Orange juice has about as many calories as coke.

But it also has vitamins (especially freshly squeezed juice).”

> So: don’t drink too much of it, and regularly brush your teeth. Note: because of the acidity of OJ, if we brush our teeth right after drinking it, it will take off the enamel from our teeth. Source