It’s easy to understand why since juices are considered as natural. What people usually fail to realize is that the fruit is full of sugar.
In this article we will differentiate the fruit juices that you make at home from the one you buy in a supermarket.
The juice you make yourself at home:
Although they contain vitamins and antioxidants, fruit juice contains just as much sugar and calories as a soda you are looking to avoid, and sometimes even more.
Yes, it is hard to believe, isn’t it? Well, no so much.
Let’s take the example of one full apple.
One large apple contains 23g of sugar and represents 116 calories. It is equivalent to 7 little cubes of sugar).
For your information, a can of the world most famous soda contains 39g of sugar and represents 140 calories (10 little cubes of sugar)
You would think that it’s better to make an apple juice than drinking the soda.
Well, think about it. Do you usually make a juice with only one apple? No, right? You need at least 2 to 3 apples to make a full glass of juice.
Your home made fruit juice now contains 46g of sugar and 232 calories (21 little cubes of sugar), which is much more that the famous soda.
That’s not it!
Fruit juice is missing a lot of the nutrients that makes a whole fruit healthy.
Orange juice, for example, does contain Vitamin C and is a decent source of folate, potassium and Vitamin B1. It also contains antioxidants. But it is nutritionally poor compared to whole oranges and other plant foods like vegetables. Mainly because when you make the juice, all the fibers of the fruit are going away.
Juices can also make you fat. Indeed our brain usually regulates our energy balance. When we eat something (like solid food), our brains compensate by making us eat less of other foods instead.
Our brain works differently for liquid and does not compensate by eating less of other food instead. If juices don’t contribute to fullness, they can make us eat more.
The juice that you buy in supermarkets:
By essence, these are considered as industrial products, even if the juices are very often labelled as 100% pure.
Have you ever wondered why your favorite juice always tastes the same? After all, that’s why you like it so much, right? After being squeezed from the fruit, the juice is usually stored in massive oxygen tank for up to a year before it is packaged. Because this industrial process removes most of the flavour, the manufacturers add industrial flavours to the juice to compensate.
Our advice: Nature gaves us the perfect fruits and vegetables for our nutrition and we are trying to invent new fancy ways to consume them. You want to be healthy? Don’t buy or make fruit juices, just eat the whole fruit. After eating only one apple you will have the feeling of satiety.
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