Why is fruit juice considered unhealthy all of a sudden?

I remember for the longest time, people always said it was good to drink juice, because it was full of vitamins and antioxidants. Now I’m always seeing articles on how juice has way too much sugar and is bad. Why was there this turnaround on it? Is there really that much more sugar in juice than there was 10 years ago?

Who is saying juice is bad for you (aside from crazed anti-sugar freaks)?

Juice mixes with lots of added sugar are probably not a great idea, but regular juice has a lot going for it.

And you can buy juices that have little or no sugar added (I use some to adulterate sodas, i.e. cranberry-diet coke).

In a nutrition seminar at work, they said that drinking orange juice is basically the equivalent of drinking a Coke. The vitamins and fiber in the juice are minimal and/or already provided by the other food we we eat.

Regular consumption in some studies has been linked with type 2 diabetes due to the high fructose content that causes spikes to blood sugar levels. A small glass of orange juice has all the fluid and sugar of 2 oranges but none of the fiber and thus the calorie consumption doesn’t register. I don’t think anyone considers it a problem if consumed occasionally but regular consumption serves no useful dietary purpose.

I think part of the problem comes when people think of drinking fruit juice as the nutritional equal of eating a piece of fruit. They both contain vitamins, and sugar. But by eating the fruit, you get fiber; and eating fruit generally limits how much you consume at one time, and how quickly the sugar is absorbed into the bloodstream.

One thing that has changed, maybe not over the past 10 years but over the past few decades, is portion sizes. When I was a kid, I remember fruit juice being served in little 4-6 oz glasses.

See How fruit juice went from health food to junk food and Misunderstanding Orange Juice as a Health Drink. (But then again, What’s More Nutritious, Orange Juice Or An Orange? It’s Complicated.)

8 oz of fresh orange juice contains 20 grams of sugar. 8 oz of pepsi contains 27 grams.

I’ve never heard anyone say to never drink juice, but people should be aware it’s a high sugar / high calorie drink, best drunk in moderation. Just like soda.

If your soft drink uses sucrose (cane sugar) , then it may well have more sugar, as fructose tastes sweeter … Americans have corn sugar, which is high in fructose,
while elsewhere in the world the Coca Cola and Pepsi brands have sucrose… more of it… eg 44 grams in an 8oz…
So in fact, in some parts of the world, juice does out rank soft drink.

Also, the juice contains all sorts of limits and results from consuming it in excess, acid,the fruit may contain irritants that cause gastric upset, the fructose may cause Intestinal upset (eg explosive diarrhea… )

Also, you can dilute fruit juice and not kill its flavour too badly… Since its not carbonated, diluting doesn’t de-carbonate it.

Here’s a past amusing thread on the topic where those of us who did not embrace the miracle of fruit juice were roundly chastised.

I hadn’t ever really heard anyone bashing juice for adults, but I was surprised to find out that giving your children juice is kind of frowned upon these days. During the 70s and 80s when my brother and I were growing up, juice was sort of the go-to drink for kids if milk wasn’t available, because it was seen as healthful, and it was relatively portable, being sold in pasteurized packages like juice boxes and little juice bottles. At any rate, it was seen as better than Kool-Aid or Coke.

Now that my kids are here; juice just isn’t a thing. Maybe it’s the white middle class circles we’re in, but I see lots more water than I used to.

Dammit! That’s why I’m so jittery!

:slight_smile:

As a Type II diabetic, I rarely drink fruit juice. It’s a huge sugar hit to your system, and it hits all at once, rather than more slowly like fresh fruit. Also, one my statin med lists grapefruit juice as a no-no, as the stuff causes the med to absorb too slowly, causing a dangerous build-up in the system.

I limit my intake of orange, cranberry, and tomato juices due to the high levels of vodka each contains.

Type 2 diabetes has been mentioned twice in this thread. Not sure if those with Type 2 use juice in the same way, but my son is Type 1, and, although before he was diagnosed we had juice in the house almost all the time, we still try to keep it around in the form of juice boxes. It is, as you note, a fast acting source of sugar, that hit is exactly what he needs whenever he has dangerously low blood sugar. He will drink a box, then, after 15 minutes, check his blood sugar level with a glucometer. If it is within the acceptable range, we’re good to go. If not, he’ll have another, and we’ll check again after 15 minutes–repeat until normal.

This also works with glucose tabs, certain kinds of candy, and sugary sodas, but juice seems the preferred method.

Glucose tabs really are the preferred method, though. Glucose ingested orally reaches the brain MUCH faster than sucrose or fructose, which need to be metabolized in the liver and elsewhere, to be turned into the glucose which the brain needs.

And a diabetic with a severe low blood sugar crisis may not have those extra minutes to spare.

That’s why I advise my patients who are susceptible to hypoglycemia (type I DM, type II on insulin or sulfonylureas, CFR-DM, etc) to carry glucose tabs and use them first, in a hypoglycemic crisis.

nm. QTM ninja’d me with far more expertise.

Good to know. Thanks for the tip (or reminder, in case we’ve been told that already and we somehow missed or misconstrued it). We do carry glucose tabs in his kit (and glucagon, of course), and are probably more likely to use those, especially when away from home, but… anyway, won’t hijack the juice thread. Carry on.

This is what I came in to say. I’m Type II insulin dependent. This morning, I had to take a few swigs of Mexican Coke to bring my BG back up above 70, which happens once in a while. Sugar sweetened soft drinks, glucose tabs, tubes of glucose gel or, in a pinch, a spoonful of cake frosting will bring my blood sugar back into the normal range pronto.

I don’t drink juice at all because of its effect on my blood sugar for up to a day after drinking a glassful. When I worked in the restaurant business, I watched the standard size of a juice glass go from 4 oz. to 8 oz. for a small and most people toward the end were ordering it in the same glass in which we served sodas with no ice or anything else to dilute the sugar hit. The quantity that most folks will drink places it in the unhealthy range.

About how fast?

Do glucose tabs allow the glucose to dissolve in saliva and pass through the oral mucosa straight into the bloodstream?

I lived a year on orange juice, thought I was doing well,
But now they tell me orange juice is fattening as -
Diet! Diet! Diet!

Flanders & Swann, 1973

Interesting. One thing I was told with type 2 diabetes is that juice has a high glycemic index, while the pulp in raw fruit slows down the absorption of sugar. So far I am not on insulin and don’t have to worry about hypoglycemia (which can be life-threatening and quickly). I wish I could eat grapefruit, but apparently it sucks up some liver enzyme that is important in detoxifying one or more of the many drugs I take. I used to peel and eat a whole grapefruit the way you do an orange.