to find the vilification of orange juice just crazy

[banterwiththehunks]

New health scare saying fruit juice is as bad as fizzy pop, sorry but what next only half an apple a day as one apple is too much sugar!

www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/10830381/Fruit-juice-and-cereals-push-children-over-sugar-limits.html

The sweeteners in your squash are worse for you than the sugar in your fruit juice.??

Having an orange is obviously much better then having orange juice because the later gives a quick sugar spike, while the fibre in the orange gives a slower release.

Can't agree with that, Spider - that's like saying "flour is flour" - the white processed stuff has no health benefits, the whole grain stuff is better. Same with suger - white crystalline sugar with everything except the sweetness stripped out has got to be worse than juice.

I agree with Runkids about sweeteners and wouldn't put them in my own mouth or in my child's, and I'm lucky that DS doesn't like anything fizzy (he calls it "dirty juice" - his own words, not mine). I'd prefer him just to drink milk or water, but if I'd rather he drank diluted juice than got dehydrated.

I think making the juice yourself rather than buying it is healthier?

I don't drink orange juice anymore, I have problem skin and nothing brings out a breakout like orange juice does.

You can't beat a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice. It tastes like sunshine.

The environmental effects are appalling with juice .
It's hugely damaging . The plants need loads of water to grow , far more than is produced as an end drink . The packaging and waste are off the clock .
The transportation is diesel greedy .
Totally Eco unfriendly .
Eat the occasional orange and drink tap water .

YAB totally U. A lot of sugar is bad for us, especially kids. Fruit juice is pretty much all sugar. Warnings about this have been around for years and the evidence on the impact on the body is clear. My DD (2 y/o) has never had juice, squash or a fizzy drink and won't for as long as I'm in control of her diet.

Eating whole fruit is different. The fibre etc. makes you feel full - you only eat one apple at a time and get the sugar of one, but might drink ten in juice, hence ten times the sugar. Just eat fruit and drink water with it...

Having an orange is obviously much better then having orange juice because the later gives a quick sugar spike, while the fibre in the orange gives a slower release.

I thought the only difference was that you get the juice (& sugar) of more than 1 orange in a small glass of juice

The quality of the sugar in an orange doesn't change when you squeeze.

Basically it seems that there isn't really anything you can drink or eat that is good for you anymore -

Coffee: bad, too much caffeine and calories added from milk and sugar
Tea: bad, too much caffeine and calories from milk and sugar
Squash: bad, too much sugar/sweeteners
Fruit juice: bad, too much sugar
Fizzy drink: bad, too much sugar

Pretty much just water and herbal teas are ok now :(

I think everything in moderation is fine, trying to keep up with all the supposed things that are good/bad for you is exhausting and takes all the joy out of food & drink and life!

I've been drinking nothing but water for about a week and it's fucking boring :/

extremepie you forgot wine

'My DD (2 y/o) has never had juice, squash or a fizzy drink and won't for as long as I'm in control of her diet.'

Never ever? Even at parties?

YABU. Orange juice is full of sugar. Fructose in fact. Fructose is now known to be unhealthy, it messes with blood sugar and insulin production. The odd half glass diluted with water aint going to kill anyone but I really wouldn't go chugging down the stuff.

the one - The quality of the juice does change when you squeeze it as opposed to eat it in the fruit as it hits your bloodstream a lot quicker so it will create a bigger insulin response.

I am diabetic, and tested my non diabetic friend's blood sugar after she'd had a large glass of juice. She's very fit and healthy but managed to hit a diabetic level of blood sugar half an hour after downing that juice. She was back to normal a few hours later but it really scared her!

Juice is definitely very, very sugary.

A small carton of orange juice is one of the best hypo treatments for dd2, better than glucose tablets as it works so much quicker.

I never realised before just how sugary it was.

Eh it depends on context. People have become hysterical about sugar recently, when it is really a normal part of a healthy diet and a good source of efficient calories from a biological point of view- the only problem is that without any scarcity or limits, we don't need efficient calories, so have to adapt intake to that environment. It's also bollocks that juice contains no fibre- of course it does! It contains all of the soluble fibre that actual fruit does. It just isn't full of cellulose (indigestible fibre), so doesn't fill you up in the way that insoluble fibre does. That's fine if you adapt yourself to the fact that you have taken in the vitamins equivalent to one fruit in whatever small amount of juice, rather than chugging back loads of it. It's certainly healthier than diet coke, and is still advised as a good, easy vitamin C source (I was advised only a month ago by GP to take it with prescribed iron tablets, for example, so it is not demonised by normal medical professionals, only pseudo-celebrity quacks). I think hippy-upper-class types forget that most people aren't going to be substituting orange juice for raw artisan carrots dipped in quinoa sauce or wtf ever they are eating this week, so see it as 'worse' than average, whereas in a more usual diet, if it is something people have a glass of at breakfast or dinner time in addition to a normal diet, it is perfectly healthy and certainly better than fizzy juice.

YANBU people just getting more and more neurotic and stressed trying to avoid death can't be healthy

My dd is ten and she has never had fizzy drinks, not even at parties. There is always something else. I used to choose the something else. Now she does.

I'm sure that will change soon enough.

sugar is the new tobacco. And about time too.

It's not new. The issue is just getting more publicity now.

Of course fruit has lots of grat vitamins and minerals, and fibre, but it also has lots of sugar. Juice if obviously a very concentrated form of that sugar. Lovely for a treat, but not that healthy.

my 2yo has only had water and milk too.

Fruit juice is chock full of sugar. So is fruit, but at least you get the fibre if you eat a piece of fruit which is a health benefit.

Nothing wrong with it in moderation but as with all foods too much is a bad thing.

Of course too much of anything is not good (even wine )

But drinking one small glass of fruit juice once a day (especially for someone who doesn't eat much/any fruit) is actually better for you than not drinking it!