Looking for a healthy snack, easy to consume, readily available…..the advertisements suggests to go ahead and grab a packed fruit juice…….. a convenient, portable, branded ready to consume healthy drink.
A word of Caution…Fruit Juice may sound as the perfect alternative to a fresh fruit but they are far from one!!
Fruits are an important part of a balanced meal. However, more and more people are thinking that packaged fruit juices and drinks are a substitute for fruits. These packaged products are blanketing the market with advertisements and are finding their way into our homes very quickly. The so called fruit juices available in tetrapaks and glass bottles have a fruit sounding name or a fruity logo, but seldom contain 100% fruit juice.
They are always made with artificial flavours and have added synthetic sugars

A couple of quick facts about packed juices:

1. Fruit Juices are devoid of most of the Nutrition:
Parents think that packaged fruit juices and drinks have the same benefits as fruits and feed them to their children. Often there is overconsumption as no limit is set on what is perceived to be a healthy source of nutrition.
Most packed juices are stuffed with sugar which make these beverages many more times calorie dense than a fresh fruit. The skin which contains most of the fibre and nutrients is removed in packed juice. For example, the Skin of grapes contains cancer preventing properties.
Many fruit juices are boiled before packing to kill bacteria but in the process important vitamins and natural elements also get destroyed.
The packed fruit juices are filtered from pulps before being canned and boxed to maintain fluidity. This pulp which contains most of the antioxidants is lost during the process of filtration and heating. Drinks labeled with added pulp are not very viable because it may not be the original natural pulp of the fruit.

2. Fruit Juices can be harmful:

Blood Sugar Regulation

Because juicing a fruit removes naturally occurring fibre, your body absorbs sugar from juice more quickly than it does from whole fruits and vegetables–This can lead to rapid rises in blood sugar rather than a sustained release of energy. Juices may contain synthetic sugar which can be extremely harmful for diabetics.

Stomach Upset

Some fruits contain a type of indigestible sugar called sorbitol, which can cause digestive distress–especially when juiced into a more concentrated form. Fruits like Prunes and apples contain measurable amounts of sorbitol, and consuming juices of these fruits can cause stomach related problems in individuals. Children may be at particular risk for digestive woes when drinking sorbitol-containing juices.

Weight Gain

Juices–particularly fruit juices–are energy dense, delivering a high dose of calories relative to volume. Coupled with their lack of satiating fiber, juices encourage excessive calorie intake because they provide concentrated energy without relieving hunger. As a result, frequent consumption of juices may hinder weight-loss efforts or contribute to weight gain, especially when compared to eating whole fruits and vegetables.

So a Fruit juice instead of providing you a Healthy supplement, is just adding Unhealthy sugar to your system while taking away all the Fruit fibre, Vitamins and minerals that we intend to consume. So go ahead eat the fruit as nature made it… complete with all its goodness and devoid of any added synthetic preservatives and additives. And as you chew on the crunchy fruit you take in so many micronutrients, release more enzymes for digestion, give exercise to your gums and teeth and improve blood glucose regulation. So much for the humble guava, orange, apple, papaya, pear, berry and so on….