Is it true that fruit juices are as harmful as sweet soda?

There is an opinion that, due to the high sugar content, juices are not only not useful, but can even cause health the same harm as carbonated drinks. We decided to check if this is so.

The fact that regular use of juices harms the human body no less than soda was reported as news media (for example, the TV channel "World"And radio"Komsomolskaya Truth"), And glossy publications (" "Rules of life" Men’s Life, Elle, Marie Claire et al.). Such information can be found on Scientific and popular And entertainment portals, as well as on resources dedicated drinks, nutrition And a healthy lifestyle generally. Trying figure out In the situation sitesspecializing in quality control of goods and services. Internet users also InterestedWhat is more harmful - soda or juice.

Most of the claims to fruit juices are in the high content of sugar in them. According to the US Department of Agriculture, in a glass Orange 250 ml juice contains 20 g of sugar, grapefruit - 22 g, Apple And pineapple - About 25 g, pomegranate -31 g. And hereinafter we are talking only about 100 percent juices, and not about fruit drinks or drinks with taste or aroma of fruit. Vegetable juices in terms of sugar content "harmless": for example, in a glass carrot And tomato juice is only 9 g and 6 g, respectively. For comparison, in a glass Coca-Cola It contains about 26 g of sugar, about the same as in the popular types of fruit juices, so their comparison with sweet soda has bases. In calories, these drinks are also approximately the same: in 100 ml of Coca-Cola-42 kcal, in the same volume of popular juices-from 39 to 53 kcal.

At the same time, Recommends It is not more than 50 g of sugar for an adult that is about 200 kcal, which is 10% of the recommended daily norm of 2000 kcal. And better, the WHO experts note, even less - about 25 g. It turns out that only one glass of juice “closes” half of the daily maximum of sugar consumption recommended WHO. Experts of the American Cardiological Association in this matter even more strictly: they Consult Men adhere to a maximum of 36 g, and women - 25 g of sugar per day. That is, one cup, for example, grenade juice for women is already too much (and this is without accounting for sugar, which people receive from other foods). Harvard Medical School specialists Offer Limit the use of fruit juices 120–180 ml per day-just due to the high content of sugar in them.

Excessive sugar can cause many problems With health-for example, overweight (which can lead to cardiovascular diseases and even cancer) and caries. "Checked" already It wrote The fact that sugar, according to the results of a number of studies, can cause addiction. In addition to the fact that he in itself can cause excess weight, "Liquid"Carbohydrates, which include juices, still do not give such a feeling of satiety as" solid ". This, in turn, can affect weight, because without feeling full, a person can significantly exceed his calorie norm.

The type of sugar that a person uses also matters. Select Three types Simple sugars: glucose, fructose and galactose. Factose is found in many fruits and vegetables, as well as, respectively, in juices from them. Unlike glucose, which almost every cell of our body can process into energy, fructose It is processed only in the liver. One of the final products of this process is triglyceride, the shape of fat, which can negatively affect the liver work, and also contribute to the growth of plaques in the arteries. Also, when processing fructose, free radicals are formed that can destroy the cells of the body. Another side effect is an increase in insulin resistance, which can lead to diabetes. US National Institute of Health Recommends Refrain from excessive use of fructose - for the same reasons.

However, there are other opinions. For example, experts of the US National Academy of Sports Medicine They saythat nothing terrible when processing fructose with our body does not occur, since less than 1% of the sugar used turns into the same triglyceride. In their opinion, if you eat less than 80 g of fructose per day, there are no dangerous consequences for health. Although, we note, this diverges from the recommendations of WHO and other authoritative organizations regarding sugar as a whole. Existing research The effect of fructose on human health also Do not confirmthat the use of this variety of sugar in the recommended graters can cause some serious harm.

It is often argued that, unlike carbonated drinks, the juice contains a certain amount of vitamins and fiber, useful for the human body. On the one hand, daily Fiber norm For an adult - 25-30 g per day, while in a glass of orange juice it contains only 0.7 g, apple - 0.5 g. On the other hand, with vitamins the situation is much better: for example, with a daily The norm of vitamin C. In 75–90 mg, a glass of orange juice contains 71 mg of this substance, apple - 95 mg. The same volume of orange juice contains 139 mg of calcium in daytime norm at 700 mg, and in the case of pomegranate juice - about 500 mg of potassium (norm - 2600 mg for women and 3400 mg for men). In addition, this juice Contains Useful antioxidants. Of course, there are no such useful nutrients in sweet soda.

Studies on the influence of precisely fruit juices (and not sugar -containing drinks in general) are currently very limited on human health. However, in 2019, American scientists conducted Data analysis, obtained during the study, “Causes of geographical and racial differences in a stroke,” in which more than 30,000 Americans took part. Scientists took among them about 13,000 people over 45 years old, excluding those who had a history of coronary heart disease, diabetes or stroke, as well as those about the nutrition of which there were no data. As a result of the analysis, the researchers found that each additional portion of fruit juice of 350 ml per day was associated with an increase in the risk of death from any cause by 24%, and each additional portion of drinks with added sugar of the same volume - by 11%. However, scientists emphasize that their work has a number of restrictions, and to clarify the relationship between the consumption of juices and increasing the risk of mortality, additional studies are required.

In addition, in the composition of packaged juices that are abundantly sold in stores, very unexpected and completely non -layered substances may contain. For example, in 2019, experts of an independent American magazine Consumer Reports, specializing in assessing the quality of goods and services, Tested 45 popular fruit juices. Almost half of them found poisonous arsenic, cadmium and lead in a potentially dangerous amount for health.

In general, nutritionists Recommend give preference to whole fruits - they contain a fiber useful to the body, vitamins in them are not Degrade, unlike juices. In addition, freshly squeezed juice cannot be stored for a long time - bacteria begin to multiply in it. Specialists Consult To consume at least 400 g of different vegetables and fruits per day, and only about 20% of this volume can be replaced with juices.

Thus, fruit juices, indeed, are comparable to sweet soda in some parameters: they contain a large amount of sugar (which means they carry the same health risks) and about the same calorie (which can affect weight). At the same time, they have vitamins, antioxidants and other beneficial substances that are not in soda. Nutritionists recommend giving preference to fresh fruits, and not juices from them, but, choosing between soda and juice, it will be more useful to choose juice.

Photo on the cover: SteVEPB

Half truth

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