Think Your Drink
Is drinking 100% fruit juice better than drinking soda?
The short answer: a little bit but drinking too much juice can still cause unwanted weight gain.
Fruit juice has natural sugars instead of high fructose corn syrup and has some vitamins, minerals and some desirable phytochemiclas. Fruit juice is rarely consumed in such large quantitie as we drink soda, but it’s just as high in calories.
Because drinking too much juice can cause kids to become overweight, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children between the ages of 1-6 keep juice intake to ½ cups of juice a day, max. Youth between 7-18 years olds shouldn’t have more than 1 cup a day. This is a good guideline for adults too.
If you're interested in weight loss, eating whole fruit is better than drinking juice. It's high in fiber and volume so gives you a feeling of fullness that stays with you. Or try diluting 100% fruit juice with sparkling water, plain water or lots if ice. You may come to prefer this less sweet version of juice.
Many products appear to be 100% juice at first glance but are actually "juice drinks"--a little juice mixed with a lot of high fructose corn syrup and water. "Fruit drinks”, “fruit ades" and “fruit punches" are just artificially-colored and flavored, high fructose corn syrup drinks mixed with a small amount of juice. Read labels closely. Many parents have been ledto believe drinks like Capri Sun are real fruit juice when, in fact, they're mostly sugar water.
Bottom line: Kids between 1-6 years old should drink no more that ½ cup of juice a day. Those ages 7- adult should cap juice at 1 cup. The best of all worlds is to drink water and eat whole fruit.
