Fashionable nutrition myths: Fruit juice vs fresh fruit

This is a mistake made by many a well-meaning dieter

They will go to a coffee shop and order a 'freshly squeezed' fruit juice (or two) and walk away feeling like they chose the healthiest option because “drinking fruit juice is the same as eating whole fruits”.

While it's true that fresh fruit juice does contain real fruit (and sometimes no additives) there are two critical factors that come into play that make it a poor option for dieters and a far cry from eating fresh whole fruit.

Number one is that in a glass of fruit juice you get the calories of many more fruits than you would usually eat in a single sitting. A glass of orange juice might contain the calories of eight oranges. When last did you eat that many oranges at once? Never, right? Why? Too filling? So what makes it so easy to drink eight oranges-worth of juice?

That's where problem number two comes in... You're getting the calories with little or none of the fibre, so you don't feel full. Plus, you digest the juice much faster than the whole fruit too, meaning your body has a much smaller chance of using the energy supplied by the juice.

In short, if you're going to have fruit, have whole fresh fruit. [Tweet this]

Fruit juice tastes nice, but it's not going to help you lose weight unless you factor the calories from the juice into your meal planning for the day.

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