Eating more fruit is almost universally recommended for anyone who is trying to get healthy. Fruit is packed with vitamins, antioxidants, and healthy fiber. And eating fruit on the go is a great way to easily get in a nutritious snack without a lot of hassle.

Lately, the juicing trend has been getting a lot of attention, with fresh fruit juice stands and smoothie bars popping up all over the health food scene. The promise of these establishments is enticing: all the nutrition of fruit in a delicious juice or smoothie that tastes great and is easy to drink. But while fresh fruit juice is indeed delicious and does have some redeeming nutritional qualities, it is not a good substitute for the real thing. CBS News reports that juice does not have all the same health benefits of eating fruit because fresh fruit has four times the amount of fiber that fruit juice does.

Fresh Fruit Juice Nutrition

It’s easy to be confused about the actual nutritional benefit of fresh fruit juice. It came from fruit, so it makes sense that it must be just as healthy. However, that isn’t always the case. The problem is that fruit juice has just as much sugar as fruit but without all the healthy fiber. In some cases, whole fruit has almost four times as much fiber as fruit juice. Plus, you often consume the juice of more than one fruit, which means you are drinking all of the natural sugar (called fructose) from these multiple fruits with none of the fiber to fill you up. This means that some fruit juice has as much sugar as a can of soda.

The antioxidants in fruits and vegetables will of course still be present in 100% juice, so it can be incorporated into your diet in a healthy way. Just make sure that you aren’t replacing whole fruit with fruit juice, and are staying mindful about sugar content.

Source:

• “Squeezing Truth Out of Juice Myths”, CBS News

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