111–120 of 162 posts
The real story here is not that Tropicana is chemically adulterated fruit-derived sugar water produced and stored at industrial scale. The real story is that the USDA lets PepsiCo call this product “juice” even though it’s nutritionally indistinguishable from Coca Cola.
Fanta would be a more apt simile. Coca Cola contains caffeine, which oranges decidedly do not.
The real story here is not that Tropicana is chemically adulterated fruit-derived sugar water produced and stored at industrial scale. The real story is that the USDA lets PepsiCo call this product “juice” even though it’s nutritionally indistinguishable from Coca Cola.
Even freshly squeezed orange juice with no additives is almost nutritionally indistinguishable from Coca Cola.
The juice had barely any orange flavor at all. I concluded that fresh-squeezed orange juice is overwhelmingly just water.
This suggests that it is in fact distinguishable from Coca Cola.
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Except that soda has other things in it that are bad and aren't called sugar. And juice still has many vitamins and minerals retained. I get what you're saying, and I'm not claiming juice is healthy. But it's certainly heathier than soda. Whole fruit is, of course, far healthier than juice
For most of us vitamins is rarely a problem.. so if we ignored that. Then do we have any studies to suggest soda contains "bad" stuff that juice doesn't.. I feel like we often associated natural things with being healthy, without necessary justification :)
What are you basing that on?
> Then do we have any studies to suggest soda contains "bad" stuff that juice doesn't
Probably.
Look at a few labels of various sodas. You'll often find things like phosphoric acid, artificial colours, artificial preservatives, caffeine, artificial sweeteners etc.
Are these the worse things in the world? Probably not.
Are many of these things good for you? Probably not.
Do they do more harm than good? Possibly.
> I feel like we often associated natural things with being healthy
I feel like we often look at nutritional labels and draw conclusions based off of macronutrients/calories - without much contemplation of the ingredients
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Just like alchohol, but that's not how people think of the juice they buy at the grocery store.
Maybe in the US. But I've never heard about abusing fruit juice before moving here.
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Your post is very well-written, but fructose does not affect insulin. Fructose is absorbed directly in the gut and converted to starch in the liver. I don't want to stop the anti-carb echo chamber, though, because it's helped a lot of people.
This doesn't sound right. The Wikipedia entry for fructose[1] has this to say: Excessive consumption of fructose may contribute to insulin resistance, obesity, elevated LDL cholesterol and triglycerides, leading to metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. So it would appear fructose does cause an insulin response. However, it then goes on to say: Uptake of fructose by the liver is not regulated…
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Around here, that’s mostly a cost issue. Hawaii for example has a real obesity problem relating to fruits and fruit juces. However, insulin response is not just about total calories. Fruit juice is at the extreme edge becase of how rapidly you can consume and absorb sugar.
Do you have a study showing the average breakdown of the Hawaiian diet?
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Exactly - If you eat an apple, you get a modest amount of sugar with some fiber to go with it. The fiber helps slow down the absorption of the sugar and lessens the insulin response. If you drink a big glass of apple juice, you get the sugar load of eating multiple apples and get none of the fiber. It's basically like drinking soda.
Except that soda has other things in it that are bad and aren't called sugar. And juice still has many vitamins and minerals retained. I get what you're saying, and I'm not claiming juice is healthy. But it's certainly heathier than soda. Whole fruit is, of course, far healthier than juice
Be specific.
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To expand on my post, I should add: Fruit is evil. The fruits we buy in the supermarket (or hipster organic farmers market) bare little resemblance to the less sweet and less palatable fruits that humans would have eaten prior to cultivation. Through an ongoing process (over multiple millennia) of artificially selecting for higher sugar content, we have turned nature’s fruits into the equivalent of candy bars. If you…
I hope people don't take this kind of simplistic advice on such a complex topic. Actual fruit, although it tastes sweet, is impossible to eat in quantities that are as harmful as junk food. They also provide tons of fiber, vitamins, anti oxidants and other beneficial nutrients. Some fruits are sweeter than others (pineapple, for example), but for the most part the vast majority of people would be better off if they a…
Without nuance and education, "fruit is healthy" translates to "fruit juice is healthy."
Without nuance and education, "two serves of fruit per day" translates to "I'll eat a fruit salad and a glass of orange juice for lunch at my sedentary desk job."
Protip: chop up a large broccoli and sauté in a wok with olive oil, salt, pine nuts and chili flakes for a few minutes. Finish by squeezing half a lemon on top. Serve alongside a modest serving of protein. That shit is a meal, and damn tasty.