Fruit Is Healthy; Juice Isn’t (Here’s Why)

10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

Biochemist and “Glucose Goddess” Jessie Inchauspé wants us to understand the difference:

Stripped!

A glass of orange juice contains 22 grams of sugar (about six sugar cubes), nearly as much as a can of soda (27 grams).

Orange juice is widely perceived as healthy due to vitamin content—but if you add vitamins to soda, it won’t make it healthy, because the main health effect is still the sugar, leading to glucose spikes and many resultant health risks. The positive image of fruit juice is mainly from industry marketing.

In reality, Inchauspé advises, fruit juice should be treated like a dessert—consumed for pleasure, not health benefits.

But why, then, is fruit healthy if fruit juice is unhealthy? Isn’t the sugar there too?

Whole fruit contains plenty of fiber, which slows sugar absorption and prevents glucose spikes. Juicing strips it of its fiber, leaving water and sugar.

The American Heart Association suggests a sugar limit: 25g/day for women, 36g/day for men. One glass of orange juice nearly meets the daily limit for women. If that’s how you want to “spend” your daily sugar allowance, go for it, but do so consciously, by choice, knowing that the allowance is now “spent”.

In contrast, if you eat whole fruit, that basically “doesn’t count” for sugar purposes. The sugar is there, but the fiber more than offsets it, making whole fruit very good for blood sugars.

For more on all of this, enjoy:

Click Here If The Embedded Video Doesn’t Load Automatically!

Want to learn more?

You might also like to read:

Which Sugars Are Healthier, And Which Are Just The Same?

Take care!

Don’t Forget…

Did you arrive here from our newsletter? Don’t forget to return to the email to continue learning!

Recommended

  • 10 Tips To Reduce Morning Pain & Stiffness With Arthritis
  • Starfruit vs Soursop – Which is Healthier?
    Soursop trumps starfruit in our nutritional showdown, boasting a lower glycemic index, a richer vitamin and mineral profile, and clarifying health myths.

Learn to Age Gracefully

Join the 98k+ American women taking control of their health & aging with our 100% free (and fun!) daily emails:

  • How to Prevent Dementia – by Dr. Richard Restak

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    We’ve written about this topic here, we know. But there’s a lot more we can do to be on guard against, and pre-emptively strengthen ourselves against, dementia.

    The author, a neurologist, takes us on a detailed exploration of dementia in general, with a strong focus on Alzheimer’s in particular, as that accounts for more than half of all dementia cases.

    But what if you can’t avoid it? It could be that with the wrong genes and some other factor(s) outside of your control, it will get you if something else doesn’t get you first.

    Rather than scaremongering, Dr. Restak tackles this head-on too, and discusses how symptoms can be managed, to make the illness less anxiety-inducing, and look to maintain quality of life as much as possible.

    The style of the book is… it reads a lot like an essay compilation. Good essays, then organized and arranged in a sensible order for reading, but distinct self-contained pieces. There are ten or eleven chapters (depending on how we count them), each divided into few or many sections. All this makes for:

    • A very “read a bit now and a bit later and a bit the next day” book, if you like
    • A feeling of a very quick pace, if you prefer to sit down and read it in one go

    Either way, it’s a very informative read.

    Bottom line: if you’d like to better understand the many-headed beast that is dementia, this book gives a far more comprehensive overview than we could here, and also explains the prophylactic interventions available.

    Click here to check out How To Prevent Dementia, because prevention is a lot more fun than wishing for a cure!

    Share This Post

  • Stretching & Mobility – by James Atkinson

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    “I will stretch for just 10 minutes per day”, we think, and do our best. Then there are a plethora of videos saying “Stretching mistakes that you are making!” and it turns out we haven’t been doing them in a way that actually helps.

    This book fixes that. Unlike some books of the genre, it’s not full of jargon and you won’t need an anatomy and physiology degree to understand it. It is, however, dense in terms of the information it gives—it’s not padded out at all; it contains a lot of value.

    The stretches are all well-explained and well-illustrated; the cover art will give you an idea of the anatomical illustration style contained with in.

    Atkinson also gives workout plans, so that we know we’re not over- or under-training or trying to do too much or missing important things out.

    Bottom line: if you’re looking to start a New Year routine to develop better suppleness, this book is a great primer for that.

    Click here to check out Stretching and Mobility, and improve yours!

    Share This Post

  • The “Five Tibetan Rites” & Why To Do Them!

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    Spinning Around

    In Tuesday’s newsletter, we asked you for your opinion of the “Five Tibetan Rites”, and got the above-depicted, below-described, set of responses:

    • About 41% said “I have never heard of these before”
    • About 27% said “they restore youth by adjusting internal vortexes”
    • About 22% said “they are basically yoga, by a different name”
    • About 11% said “they are a pseudoscience popular in the US”

    So what does the science say?

    The Five Tibetan Rites are five Tibetan rites: True or False?

    False, though this is more question of social science than of health science, so we’ll not count it against them for having a misleading name.

    The first known mentioning of the “Five Tibetan Rites” is by an American named Peter Kelder, who in 1939 published, through a small LA occult-specialized publishing house, a booklet called “The Eye of Revelation”. This work was then varyingly republished, repackaged, and occasionally expanded upon by Kelder or other American authors, including Chris Kilham’s popular 1994 book “The Five Tibetans”.

    The “Five Tibetan Rites” are unknown as such in Tibet, except for what awareness of them has been raised by people asking about them in the context of the American phenomenon.

    Here’s a good history book, for those interested:

    The Secret of the Five Rites: In Search of a Lost Western Tradition of Inner Alchemy – by John Michael Greer

    The author didn’t originally set out to “debunk” anything, and is himself a keen spiritualist (and practitioner of the five rites), but he was curious about the origins of the rites, and ultimately found them—as a collection of five rites, and the other assorted advices given by Kelder—to be an American synthesis in the whole, each part inspired by various different physical practices (some of them hatha yoga, some from the then-popular German gymnastics movement, some purely American spiritualism, all available in books that were popular in California in the early 1900s).

    You may be wondering: why didn’t Kelder just say that, then, instead of telling stories of an ancient Tibetan tradition that empirically does not exist? The answer to this lies again in social science not health science, but it’s been argued that it’s common for Westerners to “pick ‘n’ mix” ideas from the East, champion them as inscrutably mystical, and (since they are inscrutable) then simply decide how to interpret and represent them. Here’s an excellent book on this, if you’re interested:

    Orientalism – by Edward Said

    (in Kelder’s case, this meant that “there’s a Tibetan tradition, trust me” was thus more marketable in the West than “I read these books in LA”)

    They are at least five rites: True or False?

    True! If we use the broad definition of “rite” as “something done repeatedly in a solemn fashion”. And there are indeed five of them:

    1. Spinning around (good for balance)
    2. Leg raises (this one’s from German gymnastics)
    3. Kneeling back bend (various possible sources)
    4. Tabletop (hatha yoga, amongst others)
    5. Pendulum (hatha yoga, amongst others) ← you may recognize this one from the Sun Salutation

    You can see them demonstrated here:

    Click Here If The Embedded Video Doesn’t Load Automatically

    Kelder also advocated for what was basically the Hay Diet (named not for the substance but for William Hay; it involved separating foods into acid and alkali, not necessarily according to the actual pH of the foods, and combining only “acid” foods or only “alkali” foods at a time), which was popular at the time, but has since been rejected as without scientific merit. Kelder referred to this as “the sixth rite”.

    The Five Rites restore youth by adjusting internal vortexes: True or False?

    False, in any scientific sense of that statement. Scientifically speaking, the body does not have vortexes to adjust, therefore that is not the mechanism of action.

    Spiritually speaking, who knows? Not us, a humble health science publication.

    The Five Rites are a pseudoscience popular in the US: True or False?

    True, if 27% of those who responded of our mostly North American readership can be considered as representative of what is popular.

    However…

    “Pseudoscience” gets thrown around a lot as a bad word; it’s often used as a criticism, but it doesn’t have to be. Consider:

    A small child who hears about “eating the rainbow” and mistakenly understands that we are all fuelled by internal rainbows that need powering-up by eating fruits and vegetables of different colors, and then does so…

    …does not hold a remotely scientific view of how things are happening, but is nevertheless doing the correct thing as recommended by our best current science.

    It’s thus a little similar with the five rites. Because…

    The Five Rites are at least good for our health: True or False?

    True! They are great for the health.

    The first one (spinning around) is good for balance. Science would recommend doing it both ways rather than just one way, but one is not bad. It trains balance, trains our stabilizing muscles, and confuses our heart a bit (in a good way).

    See also: Fall Special (How To Not Fall, And Not Get Injured If You Do)

    The second one (leg raises) is excellent for core strength, which in turn helps keep our organs where they are supposed to be (this is a bigger health issue than most people realise, because “out of sight, out of mind”), which is beneficial for many aspects of our health!

    See also: Visceral Belly Fat & How To Lose Itvisceral fat is the fat that surrounds your internal organs; too much there becomes a problem!

    The third, fourth, and fifth ones stretch our spine (healthily), strengthen our back, and in the cases of the fourth and fifth ones, are good full-body exercises for building strength, and maintaining muscle mass and mobility.

    See also: Building & Maintaining Mobility

    So in short…

    If you’ve been enjoying the Five Rites, by all means keep on doing them; they might not be Tibetan (or an ancient practice, as presented), and any mystical aspect is beyond the scope of our health science publication, but they are great for the health in science-based ways!

    Take care!

    Share This Post

Related Posts

  • 10 Tips To Reduce Morning Pain & Stiffness With Arthritis
  • Shoulders Range – by Elia Bartolini

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    Shoulder flexibility and mobility can be a big deal, especially when it starts to decline—more so than other kinds of flexibility. Most seniors can get through the day without doing the splits against a wall, for example, but shoulder tightness can be more of a problem if you can’t easily get into or out of your clothes.

    If you think it couldn’t happen to you: the great Jane Fonda has a now-famous photoset of her looking glamorous in a dress at a red carpet event, and then looking frazzled making breakfast in the same dress in her kitchen the next morning, because, as she wrote, “I couldn’t get my dress unzipped so I slept in it”.

    Now, “to avoid ending up like Jane Fonda” is not a series of words that usually precedes advice, but in this case: this book delves into the science of one of the most quirky joints of the human body, and how to leverage this to maximize shoulder mobility, while maintaining adequate strength (because flexibility without strength is just asking for a dislocation) without doing anything that would actually bulk up our shoulders, because it’s just about progressing through passive, active, and tensed stretching, static, dynamic, and loaded stretching, as well as PNF stretching and antagonist stretching.

    If that seems like a lot of stretching, don’t worry; the author presents a series of workouts that will take us through these stretches in a very small amount of time each day.

    The style is instructional like a textbook, with clear diagrams where appropriate, and lots of callout boxes, bullet points, emboldening for key points, etc. It all makes for every easy learning.

    Bottom line: if you’d like to improve and maintain your shoulder mobility, this is an excellent book for that.

    Click here to check out Shoulders Range, and perfect your shoulders and upper body flexibility!

    Don’t Forget…

    Did you arrive here from our newsletter? Don’t forget to return to the email to continue learning!

    Learn to Age Gracefully

    Join the 98k+ American women taking control of their health & aging with our 100% free (and fun!) daily emails:

  • Lychees vs Kumquats – Which is Healthier?

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    Our Verdict

    When comparing lychees to kumquats, we picked the kumquats.

    Why?

    In terms of macros, everything is comparable except for fiber, of which kumquats have 5–6x as much fiber, which means a very significant win for kumquats in this category.

    When it comes to vitamins, lychees have slightly more of vitamins B3, B6, C, and K, while kumquats have a lot more of vitamins A and B1, and moderately more vitamins B2, B9, E, and choline. A fair win for kumquats here.

    In the category of minerals, lychees have a little more copper, phosphorus, and selenium, while kumquats have 11x as much calcium, as well as a 2–3x more iron, magnesium, manganese and zinc. An easy win for kumquats.

    Both fruits have great phenolic profiles, being both rich in antioxidants.

    All in all, enjoy both, but if you’re going to pick one, kumquats easily win the day!

    Want to learn more?

    You might like to read:

    Take care!

    Don’t Forget…

    Did you arrive here from our newsletter? Don’t forget to return to the email to continue learning!

    Learn to Age Gracefully

    Join the 98k+ American women taking control of their health & aging with our 100% free (and fun!) daily emails:

  • Kidney Beans vs Chickpeas – Which is Healthier?

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    Our Verdict

    When comparing kidney beans to chickpeas, we picked the chickpeas.

    Why?

    Both are great! But there’s a clear winner here today:

    In terms of macros, chickpeas have more protein, carbs, and fiber, making them the more nutrient-dense option in this category.

    In the category of vitamins, kidney beans have more of vitamins B1, B3, and K, while chickpeas have more of vitamins A, B2, B5, B6, B7, B9, C, E, and choline, taking the victory again here.

    When it comes to minerals, it’s a similar story: kidney beans have more potassium, while chickpeas have more calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, selenium, and zinc. Another easy win for chickpeas.

    Adding up the three wins makes chickpeas the clear overall winner, but of course, as ever, enjoy either or both; diversity is good!

    Want to learn more?

    You might like to read:

    What’s Your Plant Diversity Score?

    Take care!

    Don’t Forget…

    Did you arrive here from our newsletter? Don’t forget to return to the email to continue learning!

    Learn to Age Gracefully

    Join the 98k+ American women taking control of their health & aging with our 100% free (and fun!) daily emails: