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

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:

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Want to learn more?

You might also like to read:

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

Take care!