Fruit juices yes or no? And the natural ones? They often ask me in the office if fruit juices are healthy, they even show me tetrabricks of the juices they consume to analyze them, or they simply talk about natural fruit juices.

Well, the answer is NO, no juices, nor that you have just squeezed the oranges yourself. At a minimum, juices for occasional consumption. And because? Juices contain a very high amount of sugar that, being in a liquid medium, the body absorbs in less time and passes very quickly into the blood, which leads to a very rapid insulin response, which favors the onset of diabetes and obesity.

In 2010 “MedlinePlus” warned that adults could gain 5 kg per year if we drink two glasses of orange juice (homemade or 100%) a day and keep our usual intake and our exercise habits stable.

In addition,  the consumption of fruit juices displaces water as a habitual drink  as pointed out by  the Spanish Conference on Prevention and Health Promotion in Clinical Practice.  Something completely contraindicated.

And, just to be clear, as the GREP-AEDN stated  in 2006 “a serving of fruit juice cannot be considered equivalent to a serving of fruit” .

And you have to bear in mind that they do not have the same physiological effects, since, for example, fruit juices are less satisfying than whole (chewed) fruit , even if the juice is freshly squeezed and even if it has all its pulp.

In summary:

• A fruit juice is not healthy, even if it is without added sugars, natural or you have squeezed it yourself.
• The sugar in fruit is healthy but that in juices is not, because we release them into an aqueous medium and release them from their food matrix (we make it free), modifying the insulin response of our body.
• A juice also displaces water consumption.
• A juice is not equal to a serving of fruit.
• A juice is much less satisfying than a fruit.
• Two glasses of juice a day could make us gain 5 kilos a year.

And in conclusion, don’t waste time squeezing the fruit, or looking at the supermarket for juices without added sugars or 100% natural juices or juices made only with fruit, buy the whole fruit and enjoy each bite.

In this video I explain why when you make a juice you release the sugar and it is as if you were taking added sugar. If you still want to know more, you have the sugar course at your disposal .