Hydration traps in dry autumn and winter: juice or puree

At least two million deaths worldwide in 2017 were linked to insufficient fruit consumption.

Written by | Cai Cai

In the past, I wrote an article about sugary drinks, "Do you love sugary drinks? You are not truly happy", in which I mentioned that cola is high in sugar, calories, and unhealthy, and I suggested that everyone try to drink more water and less sugary drinks.

Many students asked: What about fruit juice? Fruit juice is healthy after all, right?

Sorry, whether it is freshly squeezed juice, 100% juice or juice blended drinks, they are all sugary beverages. Drinking less is fine, but drinking more is harmful.

Drinks like Fat House Happy Water are sugar-sweetened beverages, which are also sugary drinks. They are all sweet sugar water.

For example, on May 17, 2019, JAMA Network Open published a public health study on sugary drinks, analyzing the effects of sugary drinks such as 100% fruit juice and cola on cardiovascular disease mortality and all-cause mortality. The study found that drinking less is fine, but if you drink too much (the calories obtained from the beverage exceed 10% of the total daily calorie intake), juice is not healthier than cola, and cola is not worse than juice [1].

Oh, sugar water, how many diseases are caused by you!

Fruit juice is not as healthy as you might think, so it's best not to drink too much. What about fruit? Is it true that eating fruit is also unhealthy? Should we eat less fruit?

No, no, no, on the contrary, fruit is a healthy food. For healthy adults, it is recommended to eat more fruit.

For example, an article published in The Lancet in May last year analyzing the diets of 195 countries pointed out that at least two million deaths worldwide in 2017 were related to insufficient fruit consumption[2].

Eating more fruits means eating more in moderation. Eating too much, such as eating 300 lychees a day, is obviously not appropriate. Su Dongpo wrote in an artistic way...

How much fruit should you eat every day? Here are some recommended intakes from dietary guidelines for your reference:

- The 2016 version of the Chinese Dietary Guidelines recommends consuming 200-350 grams of fruit per day (http://dg.cnsoc.org/article/04/8a2389fd5520b4f30155be01beb82724.html);

- The Lancet 2019 healthy diet recommendation is for daily fruit intake to be between 100 and 300 grams [3];

- According to the new Harvard Healthy Eating Plate Guide, half of your daily diet should be vegetables and fruits (https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/healthy-eating-plate/);

- Canada’s latest dietary recommendations for 2019 also suggest that half of your daily diet should be vegetables and fruits (https://food-guide.canada.ca/en/?utm_source=canada-ca-foodguide-en&utm_medium=vurl&utm_campaign=foodguide).

Note: The above dietary recommendations are mainly for healthy adults. Friends with diabetes, kidney disease and other diseases, please follow the doctor's advice.

It is recommended to eat more fruits - fruits and juice are different, and juice cannot be equated with fruits.

For example, a study published in BMJ by Harvard Public Health in 2013 tracked a total of 187,382 Americans between 1984 and 2009 and found that drinking one serving of fruit juice a day increased the risk of type 2 diabetes by 21%, while eating at least two servings of fruit (whole, not juiced) a week reduced the risk of type 2 diabetes by 23%[4].

Why is this?

Assuming that the juice you drink is freshly squeezed pure juice, 100% unsweetened and additive-free, and assuming that the juicer is made of healthy, clean and sterile materials, then the juicing process will lose the rich nutrients originally in the fruit. Even the freshest cold-pressed juice can retain a little more vitamins and minerals, but it will still lose the dietary fiber contained in most fruits - and dietary fiber is very important for health. In addition, compared with eating whole fruits, juice is absorbed faster, and the impact on blood sugar and insulin levels is more drastic.

Moreover, drinking juice cannot bring a sense of fullness like eating fruit, and it is easy to consume too much sugar without realizing it. Students who have squeezed orange juice know that it usually takes three or five oranges to squeeze a glass of orange juice. Although some nutrients in this glass of freshly squeezed orange juice (such as water-soluble vitamins) are more than one orange, the sugar content in the orange juice is also doubled, while the fiber is greatly reduced, and the health benefits are greatly reduced.

You should know that most people drink juice as a substitute for water/beverages, not as a substitute for food. In other words, they are getting an extra calorie intake from juice on top of their daily diet.

After all, drinking a glass of orange juice is so much easier than eating three or five oranges. It is effortless and makes it easier for people to ignore the calories they consume.

- What if you use juice as a substitute for fruit and calculate the exact amount of calories you get from drinking juice and eating the same amount of fruit for the day? Congratulations, you've done great math! But you still lose/waste the important nutrients in the fruit, including dietary fiber...

If the juice you drink is actually blended juice (pay attention to the ingredient list, many 100% juices are actually made from concentrated juice) or juice drinks, then the sugar content may be higher and the nutritional content may be lower. Moreover, these finished juices are easier to obtain than freshly squeezed juices, so it is easier to accidentally drink too much.

What if instead of juice you drink smoothies made from whole fruit?

Since puree is made from whole fruit, it has a much higher fiber content than juice and is less likely to cause drastic fluctuations in blood sugar than juice.

If the fruit puree is made and eaten at home (it will oxidize and lose nutrients if left for a long time), no sugar or additives are added, the utensils are healthy and clean, and the fruit puree is "eaten" as a substitute for fruit, then under these conditions, fruit puree can be considered a healthy food.

If you "drink" fruit puree as a substitute for water or beverages, then, although fruit puree retains more nutrients, it will still bring too much sugar and calories like juice, which is not so healthy. And the fruit puree in restaurants and beverage stores may also add sugar, honey and other ingredients and additives, which also need to be paid attention to.

In short, the healthiest and most cost-effective way to eat fruit is to eat the whole piece of fruit.

For those who really don’t want to eat fruit or who are unable to eat fruit directly due to toothache or other reasons, you can consider making additive-free fruit puree as a substitute for fruit, but remember to pay attention to the portion and adjust your food intake accordingly.

Whether it's juice or puree, if you drink it as a beverage... compared to drinking plain water, it can be said to be a huge pot of calories falling from the sky!

So, eat more fruit and drink less juice.

References

[1] Collin, LJ, Judd, S., Safford, M., Vaccarino, V. & Welsh, JA Association of Sugary Beverage Consumption With Mortality Risk in US Adults: A Secondary Analysis of Data From the REGARDS Study. JAMA network open 2, e193121, doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2019.3121 (2019).

[2] Health effects of dietary risks in 195 countries, 1990-2017: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017. Lancet (London, England) 393, 1958-1972, doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(19)30041-8 (2019).

[3] Willett, W. et al. Food in the Anthropocene: the EAT-Lancet Commission on healthy diets from sustainable food systems. Lancet (London, England) 393, 447-492, doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(18)31788-4 (2019).

[4] Muraki, I. et al. Fruit consumption and risk of type 2 diabetes: results from three prospective longitudinal cohort studies. BMJ (Clinical research ed.) 347, f5001, doi:10.1136/bmj.f5001 (2013).