Every morning I drink a small glass of orange juice (medium pulp). My idea was that it would give me a little boost of energy in the morning, Vitamin C and some fiber. I read the back of the OJ carton recently and saw that there really isn’t all that much fiber in OJ. I eat a small cup of fiber cereal most days and that gives me way more fiber than the OJ.
I got to thinking that maybe OJ in the morning isn’t as good as it’s cracked up to be. Maybe grape juice would be better because it’s said to have some of the heart benefits of red wine and I don’t care for alcohol. My girlfriend said that cranberry would be a good choice or I could get really crazy and drink a cranberry/grape mix. Apple juice is out because I don’t like the taste.
From a health perspective, what is best? I’m lean and fit, have good cholesterol levels and have never had a tooth cavity in my life if that matters.
However, it sounds like your taste buds are finicky and you have a sweet-tooth craving. It may take some self-imposed mind tricks to switch to vegetable drinks. I’m fortunate that I like the taste of vegetable smoothies – so much so that it’s one of the things I miss when I travel.
Here’s a list of the healthiest beverages based on antioxidants, according to a UCLA study (reprinted here)
Obviously you want to read the ingredients and avoid added sugar (though IMHO cranberry, pomegranate and açai are a bit revolting without sweetener).
I’ve always been told that you’re best off just drinking water and eating whole fruits– less of a blood sugar spike. You can also try cutting orange juice and the like with flat or fizzy water.
In this case, I would suggest to the OP: VFusion by V8. Each 8oz serving offers a full serving of fruits and a full serving of veggies, and it doesn’t taste like veggies at all!
I don’t drink fruit juice myself (well, when my kidneys are being particularly obnoxious, I’ll drink Diet Ocean Spray cranberry drink, which is artificially sweetened, but still 20% (IIRC) cranberry juice. But I do buy the VFusion for my vegetable-averse middle daughter. I know it would be better if she ate her veggies, but she doesn’t. The closest she comes to eating veggies is the tomato sauce on the pizza they sell at the college caf. So I figure it’s better for her to drink them than not to get them at all.
Avoid fruit juice in general, save for special occasions in small amounts. The healthiest fruit juice is little better than an equal amount of coca-cola in terms of health benefits. Anti-oxidants may have theoretical benefit, but it has not been demonstrated to make a significant difference in health or life as of yet.
Water, unsweetened teas, vegetable juice (watch the sodium though!) and skim milk make pretty good fluids for larger consumption.
Drinks with artificial sweeteners are not proven to be bad for you, but they’ve not proven beneficial, either.
Thanks for the answers so far. A couple of things: I don’t really have much of a sweet tooth but I am kind of a picky eater. I often have one serving of veggies with dinner. Also, I do drink a fair amount of water during the day. I really was drinking the morning OJ because I thought that it would be good for me.
I think that I’ll give the V8 Fusion a try or maybe regular V8.
BTW, why would sugar be bad for someone who doesn’t have diabetes and has never had tooth decay?
It’s almost pure calories with very little nutritional content. Like popping a vitamin C tablet and then downing a glass of water with 10 or more teaspoons of sugar dissolved in it. (1 tsp of sugar = 15 calories; the V8 Fusion drinks that I just checked out have 150 [pomegranate-blueberry] or 170 [strawberry-banana] calories in them.)
Why is that a bad thing for someone like me (no diabetes, no tooth decay, high metabolism, physically fit.)? Wouldn’t it be more of a neutral for me, no better or worse than water?
Extra calories are the problem. The food advice I’ve read is that you shouldn’t be drinking your calories; take them in as real food. At least the bulk of food tends to make you feel full, faster than a highly caloric fluid will.
If you do nothing to your eating or exercise habits except add a 150-calorie glass of juice a day, with (last I checked) 3500 calories in a pound of body fat, that’s about 15.5 extra pounds of weight after a year. Assuming I did the math right, that is.
Yes, but I have a very high metabolism. I am 45 years old and I weigh the same as I did when I was 20. I didn’t start working out regularly until around four years ago and all that’s different is that my body is more toned now but my weight didn’t change. Is weight gain the only issue with sugar?
It’s not very “morning-y,” but my current favorite drink (as a soda replacement)is 3 parts carbonated water (not club soda) to 1 part pomegranate juice.
Oh, fuck, everything tasty is bad for you, isn’t it? I almost never drink soda but I’m addicted to fruit juice. Now you’re saying I can’t even have that? Well, the hell with this, then.
Not sure if this applies in the US. It came to light in a discussion of why “source of ingredient” labeling is so hard to enforce.
SunRype apple juice, a local BC product, is made from 100% BC apples. Their other juices, from straight orange to various combinations of fruits and vegetables, are not all “sourced” from BC, from Canada, or even from North America.
In other words, they might have Chinese juice concentrates in them, or concentrates from who the hell knows where. That creeps me out.
I daresay the same is true of most juices.
I don’t drink much fruit juice myself, but my boys get American orange juice from 100% American oranges, or SunRype apple juice.
:rolleyes: Even SUV-driving, McDonald’s eating, we’re-number-oneing, flag-waving good ol’ boy Amur’cin oranges yield juice that’s full of sugar, contains virtually no nutrient any reasonably fed first-world citizen needs and gives the same glucose/insulin swing as those Chinese communist pinko grapefruits.
If your weight is stable, you get regular exercise, etc. then it is likely the benefits (pleasure) outweigh the risk for you.
But as a general rule of thumb, I try to make folks aware that fruit juice is not ‘a healthier alternative to soft drinks’, which is a common meme these days.
