A study published in the journal Diabetes Care followed 73,000 women over a period of 18 years looking at the relationship between the consumption of green vegetables, whole fruit and fruit juice and the risk of developing diabetes
The results of this study showed that an increase in consumption of whole fruit and green vegetable was associated with a reduced risk of diabetes. But, an increase in fruit juice consumption of one serving a day was associated with an 18 per cent INCREASED risk of diabetes. Also consider research published in the journal Paediatrics that showed children drinking fruit juices are at greater risk of being overweight and it becomes clear that fruit juice is not that great. In fact I would consider most brands of fruit juice to be junk food! One of the reasons for this is that juice has none of the fibre that is found in fruit and basically water loaded with the sugar fructose that I talked about yesterday. Many fruit juices also get sweetened with high fructose corn syrup that is associated with liver damage, type 2 diabetes and possible cancer.
Take home point – avoid fruit juice!
Now, if you want to make a smoothie – that fine. Because you blend up all the fruit fibre and sugar, add a little protein in the form of whey protein and add some nuts, seeds or vegetables and you have a very different drink, one that is healthy.