What's more harmful: sweet soda or juice?

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

The nutritionist answers.

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How harmful or healthy are store juices? And is there a difference between drinking Coca-Cola or apple juice?

Victor Kisilev

A huge body of research Sugar and artificially sweetened beverages linked to obesity: a systematic review and meta ‑ analysis shows that frequent consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages can lead to the development of obesity and related diseases such as diabetes, gout and cardiovascular disease.

Many healthcare organizations have issued Guideline: sugars intake for adults and children, Action to cut sales of sugary drinks, urging people to cut back on sugary drinks. And several countries have gone even further and have introduced a tax on soda. But despite this, such drinks continue to be popular among millions of people.

But what about fruit juice that tastes just as sweet? It is generally considered healthy and far superior to soda. Only there is more and more data Intake of Fruit, Vegetables, and Fruit Juices and Risk of Diabetes in Women, Review of 100% Fruit Juice and Chronic Health Conditions: Implications for Sugar ‑ Sweetened Beverage Policy that fruit juice is actually no less harmful. healthier than its fizzy store shelf neighbor. Let's figure it out.

We will look at three types of sugary drinks - soda, and packaged and freshly squeezed fruit juice - and compare them in the following parameters:

• The presence of sugar. Fructose, glucose, and sucrose are naturally found in fruits and berries, sweet soda uses a syrup made of fructose and glucose
• The presence of fiber. Helps to gain a sense of fullness and, as a result, maintain a healthy weight, supports Dietary fiber intake and mortality from cardiovascular disease and all cancers: A meta ‑ analysis of prospective cohort studies, Dietary fiber and health outcomes: an umbrella review of systematic reviews and meta‑ analyzes natural processes in the digestive tract, reduces the risk of diabetes, heart disease and certain types of cancer.
• The presence of trace elements and phyto-substances. Vitamins, minerals and plant substances perform a number of vital functions in our body - for example, they prevent the development of diseases from the Eat for Life: The Food and Nutrition Board's Guide to Reducing Your Risk of Chronic Disease.
• The number of calories contained. It is a unit of measure for the energy obtained from food. When you eat, your body uses it for a variety of purposes. And if you get more calories than you can burn, then they begin to be deposited in the form of fat, the excess of which can harm the body.
• The presence of food additives. Colorants, Stabilizers and Flavors are considered safe Overview of Food Ingredients, Additives & Colors, GRAS Notices, Food additives. However, current scientific evidence does not allow us to draw definitive conclusions. In addition, some additives in large quantities can cause Dietary emulsifiers impact the mouse gut microbiota promoting colitis and metabolic syndrome, Food Additives and Child Health, Common food additives and chemicals harmful to children, Effects of Food Additives on Immune Cells As Contributors to Body Weight Gain and Immune-Mediated Metabolic Dysregulation to the development of a number of diseases.

	Sweet soda	Packaged fruit juice	Freshly squeezed fruit juice	A comment
Sugar	There is	There is	There is	All drinks contain approximately 20-25 g (5-6 teaspoons) of sugar per 250 ml of beverage.
Cellulose	No	No	Differently	If you add pulp to the juice, you get almost the same amount of fiber as from the whole fruit.
Trace elements and phyto-substances	No	Differently	There is	Freshly squeezed juice is rich in vitamins and minerals. These nutrients are sometimes added to packaged juices during production.
Calories	110-130 calories per 250 ml	110-130 calories per 250 ml	110-130 calories per 250 ml	Main source calories - sugar.
Nutritional supplements	There is	There is	No	Fresh juice - the only one of three drinks in which there will be no dyes, flavor enhancers and preservatives.

After comparison, we see that sweet soda still gets the palm in terms of harmfulness, although the packaged juice is not far behind it.

Freshly squeezed juice contains the same amount of calories and sugar as the other two competitors in our competition, but it is unlikely that these drinks will affect your health in the same way. For example, sugary sodas tend to increase A lack of consideration of a dose – response relationship can lead to erroneous conclusions regarding 100% fruit juice and the risk of cardiometabolic disease, Long ‑ Term Consumption of Sugar ‑ Sweetened and Artificially Sweetened Beverages and Risk of Mortality in US Adults Disease Risk Dependent on Dose. This means that the more you drink, the higher your risk of getting sick, even if you only consume small amounts.

In addition, drinking a small amount of freshly squeezed juice (less than 150 ml per day) can reduce Pure fruit juice and fruit consumption and the risk of cardiovascular diseases: The EPIC ‑ NL Study, Fruits, vegetables, 100% juices, and cognitive function, Estimated dietary intakes of flavonols, flavanones and flavones in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) 24 hour dietary recall cohort, Regular consumption of concord grape juice benefits human immunity risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Higher consumption may already be harmful to your health.

If you feel like drinking a sweet drink, then choose freshly squeezed juice with pulp. It is rich in micronutrients and fiber that will benefit your health. But don't forget about the calorie count. To prolong the pleasure and not harm your health, you can dilute the freshly squeezed juice with mineral water.