You want to be more healthy, so you're forsaking soda pop in favor of nutritious fruit juice. The only trouble is, a lot of the fruity beverages sitting on grocery shelves don't actually contain much juice. For example, Sunny Delight "Real Fruit Beverage" contains a whopping 5 percent juice; the rest is water, sweeteners and flavoring. And although Hi-C boasts "Made with real juice" on the label, it's only 10 percent real juice. Still, that's better than Slice Orange Soda, which has no juice at all.
To find out how much juice a product contains, ignore the hype on the front of the label. The juice content usually appears with the "Nutrition Facts," which are generally on the back or side of the product.
To be labeled as a fruit juice, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) mandates that a product be 100 percent fruit juice. If it's juice made reconstituted from concentrate, the label must also state that fact. Any beverage that is less than 100 percent fruit juice must list the percentage and must include a descriptive term, such as "juice drink," "juice beverage," "juice cocktail" or "cooler." These terms are clues that the drink isn't all juice.
Why is it important? If you consume fruit-flavored drinks instead of juice, you're missing out on a good source of important nutrients that come from fruit. A lot of the flavored-water drinks have been fortified with vitamin C, but real juice also contains other vitamins, minerals and micronutrients that help the body ward off disease.
An eight-ounce glass of fresh-squeezed orange juice naturally provides 120 percent of the daily value for vitamin C, plus some folate, thiamin, potassium, vitamin B-6, magnesium, niacin and phosphorus. Also, by drinking a vitamin C-rich juice while you're eating other foods, the iron in the food is better absorbed by the body.
"Real juice has all the nutrients from that particular fruit, not just vitamin C added in," said Spring C. Bean, a registered dietitian with Primary Children's Hospital. "Real juice contains phytochemicals that play an important role in disease prevention, and you can't supplement those in drinks. Also, since these drinks are mainly water and sweeteners, you're getting a lot of empty calories."
One phytochemical is lycopene, a pigment that gives tomatoes their red color. Research has linked it to prevention of some types of cancer by enhancing the immune system. Lycopene is also found in pink grapefruit, watermelon and guava. You'll get lycopene in grapefruit juice or V-8 100 percent vegetable juice but not much in a flavored drink.
PUTTING THE SQUEEZE ON JUICE: Adding to the confusion over juice is the American Academy of Pediatrics' statement in May, advising parents to limit the amount of juice their young children drink. But that's no license to start guzzling soda pop or the pseudo-juice drinks.
In its policy statement, "The Use and Misuse of Fruit Juice in Pediatrics," the group's committee on nutrition stated that excessive amounts of fruit juice shouldn't displace milk or baby formula in the diet, since milk and/or baby formula are needed for growth and development.
The statement notes the positive benefits of fruit juice but warns that excessive juice-drinking can lead to excessive gas, stomach upsets and bloating in babies. Also, when babies suck juice continually from a baby bottle, the natural sugars in the juice can lead to cavities. The statement encouraged children to eat whole fruits — which also contain fiber — to meet their recommended daily fruit intake.
Bean works with diabetics and overweight clients and has found that some of the extra calories they consume come from juice drinks and real juice. She recommends drinking just 4 ounces (or a half-cup) of juice per day and eating whole fruits and vegetables rather than drinking juices. To quench your thirst, drink water.
"In many ways, the report simply reiterates the common-sense axiom that too much of anything — even a good thing — can be bad for us," said Dr. William Sears, nationally renowned pediatrician and author of "The Family Nutrition Book." He says that 100 percent fruit juice is always a better choice than soda pop. Kids age 1 to 6 should limit juice-drinking to four to six ounces per day; Kids ages 7 to 18 can have up to 12 ounces per day.
Adolescents account for only 10 percent of juice consumption, so getting your teen to forsake his can of Mountain Dew for a glass of juice shouldn't hurt him.
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