Juicing up is fattening up

Health conscious Mom’s monitor what their kids are drinking.

Milk, often low-fat, is in.
Cola is out.
Juice is in.
Coffee is out. More for the parent’s sanity than juniors wellbeing.
Water is in.

But as obesity rates climb in both adults and kids – it might be time to rethink the healthfulness of those IN beverages.

Scoring those drinks

Fizzy cold drinks / sodas don’t make it on to too many health lists.

They’re are unhealthy on so many levels :

Full of “sugar”
Full of artificial chemicals – often including caffeine
Contain few or no nutrients
Acidic

On the other hand, that box of juice is natural and provides the nutritional benefit of 5 oranges making it a health drink.

Well that is what the marketing hype suggests BUT….

Fruit juice is full of fruit sugar

If you crunch the numbers – a glass of apple juice can actually have a few more calories than a glass of cola. Surprised ?

But of greater significance, is the glass of apple juice has more fruit sugar. And fruit sugar is NOT a health food.

Not all sugar is created equal

Our tongues definition of sugar is something that tastes sweet, but a biochemical analysis of “sweet” exposes several players.

The two most significant players are glucose and fructose (fruit sugar). They look pretty much the same. And as far as our taste buds are concerned, they really can’t tell the difference. But the rest of the body can.

The body handles fructose a little differently from glucose. Fructose is more fattening the glucose.

But fruit juice is NATURAL

Fruit is natural and contains a variety of beneficial nutrients.

But mother nature doesn’t do much juicing. In nature, fruit is eaten, one piece at a time and not all the time. The availability of fruit is seasonal.

Juicing is NOT natural.

Juicing removes the fibre and allows one to consume 4-5 pieces of fruit in one sitting. Eating 4-5 apples or oranges in one go, would pose a challenge, but downing a glass of juice is a sinch.

Fruits are good for you because they are loaded with vitamins , minerals and phytonutrients. But too much of a good thing, is not always a good thing. Juicing concentrates the fructose. Too much fructose packs on the pounds.

Quench your thirst with what the lion’s drink

It is important to keep hydrated but juicing up, may in fact be likened to fattening up.

To keep healthy , you need to limit ALL sugared beverages. This doesn’t just mean laying off the coke and cream soda, it also means limiting fruit juice too.

Interested in learning more about the chemistry behind those extra fat layers ?

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