Fruit juice is bad for you because it’s very high in sugar. It doesn’t matter if it’s organic, or cold pressed, or in a carton, or squeezed fresh before your eyes. All fruit juice is high in sugar and too much sugar is bad for you. That vitality and goodness aura surrounding fruit juice is a marketing construct designed to sell you stuff, and it is nonsense. When you think of fruit juice, think less of vitality and goodness, and more of diabetes and obesity.
What about the vitamins? They’re not a good enough excuse, and the benefit of them is outweighed by the fact that fruit juice is basically sugar water – orange juice has nearly as much sugar in it as Coca-Cola.
A donut in a glass
Saying juice is good for you is like saying a donut is good for you if you stick a cherry on top. The donuts are still bad for you, and the ‘healthy’ cherry doesn’t cancel it out.
It doesn’t matter that the sugar is from a ‘natural’ source. Sugar from a packet is from a natural source – it’s just been processed to refine it and get it into the bag. When a fruit is juiced, it’s being processed. This processing takes the sugar and the water from the fruit, and leaves behind the solid part.
The solid part of the fruit – the part that gets left out of juice – is important. When an advert tells you a glass of juice has 4 oranges in it, you’re being misled. It doesn’t have 4 oranges in it. It has the sugar and water from 4 oranges.
There’s a big difference in terms of your health. If you try to eat 4 oranges, you’re much more likely to get sick of them and stop after a couple. You’re consuming some sugar, but you’re limited because you get full, or bored, or both.
With juice, there is no limit. You can easily drink a glass, or two, or more. It doesn’t fill you up, so you have a bit more. You feel pleased with yourself because you think fruit juice is healthy and good for you – so you have a bit more. You load more and more sugar into your stomach and it feels good. It doesn’t feel like you’re eating a burger and chips’ worth of calories.
Get the vitamins (plus a load of fibre) from eating fresh fruit.