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Posted on 07/21/2025 6:19:55 AM PDT by Red Badger
It’s no secret that kids (and some of us adults) love fruit juice. Many of us grew up drinking fruit juice, and parents often think 100% fruit juice is healthy. But is it really?
UC Davis Health pediatricians Lena Rothstein and Dean Blumberg tackled this juicy topic in their podcast Kids Considered:
We often like the taste of fruit juice because it’s a sweet drink. But it’s no secret that sweet often means more sugar, even if it’s natural sugar.
Think about whole fruits that are sweeter – they have more natural sugars that make them taste sweet. Same goes for those 100% fruit juices, which may not have any added sugars. Too much sugar of any kind isn’t healthy.
Fruit juices often have added flavors, food coloring or other additives.
In addition, news came out in January that many fruit juices can contain lead or other metals, according to Consumer Reports.
The study looked at 24 national and private label brands and tested 45 juices of different flavors. Many of them had elevated levels of lead, according to the report. These metals can lead to neurodevelopmental problems in children.
Does 100% fruit juice still have sugar?
Now back to the sugar concerns: Fruit juices are a concentrated source of sugar for children.
In one popular apple juice brand, which we have chosen not to name, one 4 oz. box contained 14 grams of sugar. That equals about 3 teaspoons of sugar.
In a 6 oz. box of a popular orange juice, it was found to have 18 grams of sugar, or a little more than 4 teaspoons.
If you compare that to a can of soda, in terms of volume, it’s about the same – and those are fruit juices with no added sugar.
Is eating whole fruit that much better than drinking fruit juice?
Yes! Whole fruits provide fiber by way of the skin and pulp. Fiber has been shown to decrease the risk of colon cancer, lower cholesterol and help control blood pressure. It’s also associated with living longer, studies suggest.
In addition, whole fruits contain some vitamins that don’t make it into the juice. Some edible fibers in the skin and pulp are removed during the juicing process.
Whole fruit also takes longer to eat causing a slower calorie intake, which can decrease the risk of obesity. Finally, fruit juice has more concentrated sugar and calories as compared to whole fruit.
What other negative impacts can fruit juice have?
Drinking fruit juice can replace consuming other beneficial liquids, like breast milk for babies or water for the rest of us.
The more concentrated sugar and calories in fruit juice can lead to obesity and inappropriate weight gain. Excessive weight gain is associated with high blood pressure, hypertension, stroke, diabetes and other negative health issues later in life.
Is it safer to dilute fruit juice with water?
Not necessarily. Even diluted juice can increase the risk of cavities and decrease the chance of drinking other beneficial liquids.
My child loves fruit juice, so is there a safe amount to give them?
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends children under 1 year of age drink no fruit juice. It is ok for children 1 to 3 years of age to drink up to 4 oz. per day, but parents should focus on offering whole fruit or water instead.
Children ages 4 to 6 can have 4 to 6 oz. of fruit juice per day. Children older than 6 should not drink more than 8 oz. per day, which is basically a small glass.
Children who are overweight or obese should eliminate juice from their diet.
A few juicy words of advice for parents from the pediatricians:
* Don’t put your child to bed with juice or milk. It leaves teeth covered with sugar and can feed the bacteria that causes cavities and tooth decay.
* Avoid giving your children fruit juice in sippy cups. Sippy cups make it easier to drink juice throughout the day, leading kids to decrease healthier food intake.
* Negative impacts of fruit juice will have negative impacts on obese children. Ultimately, children should avoid drinking any sugary drinks, including sports drinks and other sweet drinks. Just by cutting out those liquids, you will likely see dramatic effects on a child’s weight.
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Related stories on fruit juice and health:
LINKS AT SITE........................
Kids Considered: Fruit Juice – Friend or Foe?
American Academy of Pediatrics News: Added sugar in kids’ diets: How much is too much?
CNN: It’s not just soda: Drinking too much fruit juice (or any sugary drink) linked to premature death risk
Bloomberg: Now Fruit Juice is Linked to a Higher Cancer Risk
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Unfortunately not good for you (or our obese kids).
Far better to keep it in the whole food for direct consumption. (And no, I wasn’t so keen on that as a kid either.)
The whole fruit is better than just the juice.
I mix 100% fruit juice 1:1 ~ 2:1 with water. Still plenty of flavor, and more refreshing.
If you think high-fructose corn syrup is bad, then you should think fruit juice is bad too, as it typically contains fruit sugar - fructose.
There is a reason people are pear-shaped.
Fruit most commonly ripens in late summer and early fall. To capture and hold on to nature’s once a year bounty, humans are probably biologically arranged to store it up.
Fruit juice should be removed from SNAP and WIC program coverage.
I used to do that with grape juice, not so much other kinds. These days I seldom drink juice or soda at all. Water’s always good.
>>>To capture and hold on to nature’s once a year bounty, humans are probably biologically arranged to store it up.<<<
I have been saying this for years.
It’s not that it’s ‘sweet’ it’s how our bodies react to it:
Body ingests a molecule of sugar and it says: “This is sugar, therefore energy! I can use it immediately!”
Body ingests a molecule of HFCS and it says: “This is fructose! Must be late Summer or early Autumn. Need to store it for those lean Winter months ahead. I’ll stick it in my butt!”...............
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFuSidBaf7k
It’s high in sugar. I avoid it. That said, I use a lot of lemons in cooking and occasionally eat a grapefruit.
Grapefruit can interfere with blood pressure meds.
Check here:
BRAVE AI
Grapefruit and Blood Pressure Meds
Grapefruit can interfere with blood pressure medications, potentially leading to dangerous fluctuations in blood pressure levels.
This interaction occurs because grapefruit affects the enzymes responsible for breaking down these medications, which can result in higher drug levels in the bloodstream.
Calcium channel blockers: Grapefruit can increase the levels of calcium channel blockers like nifedipine and felodipine in the body, which may cause a significant drop in blood pressure.
Other blood pressure medications: Grapefruit can also interact with other types of blood pressure medications, such as losartan and eplerenone, potentially leading to either too much or too little of the drug in the bloodstream.
Alternatives: For patients taking medications that interact with grapefruit, there are often alternative drugs available that do not have this interaction. For example, amlodipine (Norvasc) is a calcium channel blocker that does not interact with grapefruit.
It is important to consult with a healthcare provider before consuming grapefruit or grapefruit juice while taking any blood pressure medication.
My former GP Dr used to have the amount of sugar packets contained inside a 12 oz can of Coke and a similar size bottle of Orange Juice. They were all taped together hanging down from the side of the cabinet in the exam room. It was almost the same. Although, most Coke sold in the USA has corn syrup instead of cane sugar.
Basically, I blame Anita Bryant. She advertised for the Florida OJ growers. Up until then our moms let us kids drink Hi C, Hawaiian Punch, and Tang. All those drink s that were GOOD for you. The guys that went to the moon drank Tang. It had to be good for you. They had the Right Stuff.
Yep. But I manage my BP with keto and exercise.
Wow! I could have had a V8!
Stopped drinking fruit juice years ago - it is a blast of sugar to the system.
At least with whole fruit, you get fiber which slows down the sugar.
Coming from a family of diabetics, none of us need that sugar blast - not sure anyone does.
lol...
“Fruit most commonly ripens in late summer and early fall. To capture and hold on to nature’s once a year bounty, humans are probably biologically arranged to store it up.”
“Stopped drinking fruit juice years ago - it is a blast of sugar to the system.
At least with whole fruit, you get fiber which slows down the sugar.
Coming from a family of diabetics, none of us need that sugar blast - not sure anyone does.”
Sugars are carbohydrates, and your body needs carbs and sugars. Your brain requires around 130 grams of glucose every day to ensure it operates smoothly. Energy from carbs is essential to your body’s function.
It is recommended that you get less than 150 calories a day from added sugars, which is about 36 grams of sugar. To put it in perspective, a 12 oz. of cola has around 40 grams of sugar. Getting your daily sugars from whole foods like fruits and vegetables provides you with more nutrients than a can of soda. So, choose your sugars wisely.
https://www.webmd.com/diet/whats-the-difference-between-sucrose-and-fructose
“Coming from a family of diabetics, none of us need that sugar blast - not sure anyone does.”
Remove all carbs from our diet, just like any human without agriculture did and still does and all modern “chronic” diseases like diabete, alzheimer, hypertension, heart disease will disappear. The carnivore movement is the living proof of that simple fact.
“Your brain requires around 130 grams of glucose every day to ensure it operates smoothly. Energy from carbs is essential to your body’s function.”
Carbs are a subpar food for humans. The idea they would be “essential” to us is baloney (pardon the pun given that baloney is better than any carbs possible), if not borderline criminal considering the official guidelines still recommend them for diabete patients.
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