The healthiness or harm of juice consumption in our environment is perhaps one of the most difficult topics to explain to experts or, in other words, one of the most difficult for consumers to understand. The debate becomes more complicated as impractical fallacies and dichotomies are mentioned: if juices are made from fruit and this is healthy, why shouldn’t juices be healthy? Could it be that commercial juices are bad, but homemade ones are good? Can one of the five recommended daily servings of fruit and vegetables be replaced by juice?
As if this were not enough, the marketing actions of the interprofessional association that refers to the sector are responsible, with their frequent campaigns, for fanning the flames, always trying to put their own hopes on the fire: for them, consuming (their) juices is always “good”. Thus, and although the debate exists and will remain open for a long time, the data is incontestable: juices (commercial or homemade, and alike) contribute significantly to the intake of free sugars in our diet.
Are fruit juices healthy?
In our environment, full of occasions and sources of so-called free sugars, it is not advisable to frequently resort to juices. To get an idea of the basis of this recommendation, it is enough to know that a glass of juice (commercial or homemade, and again, for the same) contains a quantity of free sugars practically equal to that contained in the same glass with a regular cola drink. The same, and sometimes more.
Cola soft drinks, for example, from the most well-known brand on the market, contain 10.5 grams of sugar per 100 ml today. Orange, pineapple, peach, etc. juices, whether homemade or commercial, contain between 9 and 12 grams. In addition, the warning sign about juice consumption has another point of support: the image that people have of juices is very healthy (just the opposite of that of soft drinks) and it is not likely that there will be any greater hesitation or restraint in, after having a portion (or glass), having a second, a third, etc. After all, “it is so healthy”…
What are fruit juices?
According to the quality standard for the production, composition, labelling, presentation, and advertising of fruit juices and other similar products intended for human consumption, fruit juices are the product susceptible to fermentation, but not fermented, obtained from the edible parts of healthy and ripe fruit, fresh or preserved by refrigeration or freezing, of one or more mixed species, which has the colour, aroma, and flavour characteristic of the juice of the fruit from which it comes. No more, no less.
It is important to highlight something that many consumers are unaware of or even completely confused about the above-mentioned rule stresses that sugars cannot be added to fruit juices (I repeat, to “juices”). In other words, the amount of free sugars present in juices comes from the fruit itself or from the fruit concentrate from which they are made. There is no “extra” sugar in fruit juice, except for that which comes from that fruit. Thus, and as could not be otherwise, the sugars in a homemade juice are virtually the same as those in a commercial juice.
Nectars are another matter. The standard defines them as a product that can be fermented, but is not fermented, and that is obtained by adding water with or without the addition of sugars and/or honey to products defined as juice, fruit puree, and/or concentrated fruit puree, and/or a mixture of these products. In other words, fruit nectars are susceptible to incorporating more sugars, beyond those provided by the fruit as raw material for its preparation.
What are the differences between commercial and homemade juices?
In most cases, the main difference is that commercial juices have undergone a sanitization process (typically pasteurization or sterilization) in order to be sold at room temperature and, at the same time, have a relatively extended best-before date. Remember, after all, these are “fermentable, but not fermented” products. It is precisely because of this characteristic that juices must be sanitized in order to eliminate all the bacteria that would end up fermenting the juice. Sanitized juices, therefore, would belong to the second range of foods. One of the undesired side effects of sterilization (more obvious) or pasteurization (less obvious) are changes in the sensory characteristics of juices. This organoleptic difference between homemade juice and one that has been heat-treated by the industry is what is highlighted when we say that homemade juice is tastier or tastes more “authentic.”
However, it is becoming more and more common to find “fresh” juices on supermarket shelves. These juices have not been subjected to any heat to sanitize them. These juices are sold under refrigerated conditions as they belong to the so-called fourth range. Their expiration date will be shorter, but their greatest advantage is that their sensory qualities are much more similar to those found in freshly squeezed juice.
Are commercial juices healthy?
Whether a juice is more or less healthy depends on its nutritional characteristics: whether it has more or less sugar, whether it retains more or less vitamins, whether it includes more or less fibre and whether it provides more or less phytonutrient substances, typically antioxidants. In this sense, the nutritional characteristics of a commercial juice are virtually identical, except for minor details, to those that adorn a freshly squeezed juice. Thus, how healthy juices are (little in our context related to their regular consumption) is irrelevant to their nature, whether homemade or commercial.
What are the contraindications of fruit juices?
Juices are not the devil, that is true, but the current circumstances of accessibility, price, and context (related to the rest of the existing food supply) mean that we must weigh up some of their drawbacks. The most notable are:
They include even more sugar in our Westernized diet
The main drawback of fruit juices is their significant capacity to make us include a significant volume of free sugars. The WHO recommends not exceeding the amount of 25 grams of free sugars per day. However, as you will have seen from the data above, just a typical glass of juice (let’s say 250 ml and containing as many as 10 grams of sugars per 100 ml) reaches this figure . The risks of over-intake of sugars in our diet have been linked, with very little doubt, to the increase in non-communicable diseases, typically obesity, coronary disease, diabetes, and even cancer.
They do not provide fiber or do so in a ridiculous amount.
The lack of fibre in the typical Western diet is quite worrying. Its limited presence is associated with a number of complications. The most immediate is constipation, but also colon cancer, diabetes, certain alterations in plasma lipids that affect cardiovascular disease, etc.
In the case at hand, most juices provide a ridiculous amount of fiber and so if we choose juices at a given time (which have hardly any fiber) we will be blocking the window of opportunity to make another choice that does have fiber, the most obvious one, fresh fruit.
Reasons why it is better to eat whole fruit than juice
The difference between drinking juice or eating fruit could be the same as eating a lobster or a surimi stick. And no, I’m not referring to the sensory issue, which is also true. Remember: fruit is what’s in your fruit bowl or hanging from the trees, and if none of these circumstances apply, it’s not fruit.
Calories
On average, a juice – let’s say it’s orange – requires three pieces of this fruit to be obtained. Pieces from which everything that is likely to provide us with calories in the fruit (sugars) is extracted. And therefore, we take in the calories of three oranges. By eating an orange, we only take in the calories of one orange.
The fiber
As mentioned above, the amount of fibre in regular juices is quite low. The figure improves if the pulp is added, but it is still far from the amount of fibre that is included when what is done with the fruit is to eat it (instead of using it for juice).
Blood sugar spikes
Too much sugar in a short period of time, without the brake on its absorption that the presence of the food matrix would mean and in a liquid medium, implies a “shot” of sugar in the blood identical to that of drinking a soft drink (we’ve already said it, I know). And all this and again in addition to the constant overabundance of sugar. You don’t need to be a health professional to infer the consequences related to the increased risk of diabetes and obesity.
Satiety
Drinking a glass of juice barely increases the feeling of satiety, it is done quickly and is not chewed. Eating a piece of fruit does: it takes longer and is chewed. Both factors contribute to the aforementioned satiety. For these same reasons, it is not at all unusual for someone, at a given moment, to drink a second glass of juice, or even a third (can you imagine sitting in front of the typical hotel breakfast buffet?), something that does not usually happen when it comes to “eating” fruit. So, beyond satiety, imagine what this consumption pattern means in terms of calorie intake and blood sugar spikes.