Cost
Firstly, let’s compare the cost between a piece of fruit and a freshly squeezed fruit juice. Many people say that it’s expensive to make healthy choices, yet they often have spare change for juice opposed to whole fruit.
Nutrition
It seems that people perceive juices to pack more of a nutritional punch than whole fruit. This, however, is not at all the case. Though given the clever marketing, it’s easy to understand why people think this.
Why is juice no opponent for whole fruit?
- Fruit loses a lot of its nutrition as the skin and pulp is often removed and discarded during processing. Whilst it retains many of the vitamins and minerals, it loses most or all of its fibre.
- Juice normally contains in excess of your recommended 2 serves of fruit. This is an issue because it is then a concentrated hit of sugar (albeit natural). Juicing companies could very well use 4+ oranges to make a small serving of orange juice, for instance.
- These sugars are absorbed more quickly in to the blood stream compared to their whole fruit counterparts. This absorption rate isn’t unlike that of a soft drink or other sugary drinks.
- Eating the whole fruit is a much slower process and the fibre content slows down digestion – keeping you fuller for longer. For this reason, fruit is low GI!
- Whilst people who are more active or have higher energy requirements can consume more fruit than those who don’t, it is important to recognise that there are more nutritious options than fruit. Compared to vegetables, fruit has more sugar, less fibre, less minerals and less phytochemicals which provide great health benefits. So first meet your vegie requirements and then have the extra piece of fruit.
Only 125ml of juice equals one serve of fruit. People therefore get well over their two serves and often eat fruit during the day as well.
Health
Diabetes
Whole fruit is actually linked to a decreased risk of type 2 diabetes whereas juice is linked to an increased risk! [1]
Weight gain
Juice is very easy to over consume and due to the natural sugars, juice contains kilojoules. Additionally juice is not nearly as filling as whole fruit so people tend to eat their usual dietary intake and have juice on top that.
It is thought that one of the contributing factors to the obesity epidemic is that people are now drinking their kilojoules and as a result, quickly exceeding their requirements for the day.
Dental health
Juices are often acidic and therefore increase your risk of forming dental cavities. Dried fruit poses the same concern.
Juice detox
Juice will not “detox” your body. Your kidneys, lungs and liver will. Relying solely on juice will cause far more damage to your body than any purported health benefits.
Summary
Fruit juice should be kept as a very occasional drink and only in small amounts.
Contact us for results focused nutritional advice
This article was written by our dietitian Belinda Elwin who is a Dietitians Association of Australia member and Accredited Practising Dietitian and Nutritionist. If you have questions about healthy eating, make an appointment. We‘ll provide you with a simple and effective routine targeted to your concerns. Contact us today.
