Most people are aware that sugar is bad for us and can make us fat. But most people are not aware that fruit juices are equally bad and will also make us fat. According to Dr. Robert Lustig of the University of California, the juice is the bad part of the fruit and fructose, or fruit sugar, is just as bad as sucrose, or table sugar. He says drinking all-natural fruit juice does an equal amount of damage as drinking a can of soda. Here's why. We all know that a can of soda is, among other things, loaded with sugar and sugar causes all kinds of problems. It raises our blood sugar, damages the liver, and is a likely cause of Type 2 diabetes, obesity, and possibly heart disease. But the natural sugar in fruit is just as damaging as white table sugar.
The idea that an all-natural fruit juice could be anything less than a health food certainly defies conventional wisdom. Even the most conscientious eaters are often unaware that from a molecular standpoint, fructose and sucrose are essentially one in the same. And that is no doubt a big part of the problem. The juice companies are clearly taking advantage of this lack of knowledge. Just read the labels in a grocery store or even in a health food store and this becomes clear. The marketing of fruit juices with "no sugar added" are presented as a healthy alternative to beverages sweetened with sugar but it is just not true.
The idea that an all-natural fruit juice could be anything less than a health food certainly defies conventional wisdom. Even the most conscientious eaters are often unaware that from a molecular standpoint, fructose and sucrose are essentially one in the same. And that is no doubt a big part of the problem. The juice companies are clearly taking advantage of this lack of knowledge. Just read the labels in a grocery store or even in a health food store and this becomes clear. The marketing of fruit juices with "no sugar added" are presented as a healthy alternative to beverages sweetened with sugar but it is just not true.As Dr. Lustig makes clear in his video lecture, sugar is sugar whether it be table sugar, the natural sugar in fresh fruit, or high-fructose corn syrup. They all react in the body in the same way.
In a recent cover story in the New York Times Sunday Magazine, science writer Gary Taubes addressed this issue and started his article by referencing Dr. Lustig's lecture in the first sentence. Taubes is the author of the 2007 book "Good Calories, Bad Calories" and the more recent "Why We Get Fat." The Taubes article from April 17, 2011 titled "Is Sugar Toxic" makes the case that although we know sugar makes us fat, it may also be making us sick as well. Taubes says that when fructose hits the liver in sufficient quantity and with sufficient speed, the liver converts much of the sugar to fat. He further makes the case that from the evidence that was previously used to indicate fat as the culprit in heart disease, there is an equally persuasive rationale that sugar, not fat, may be the real culprit.
Dr. Lustig believes that too much fructose and not enough fiber is the most prevalent cause of the obesity epidemic because of the adverse effect of all sugars, whether sucrose or fructose, on the insulin response in our bodies. Dr. Lustig has a video lecture on You Tube about the dangers of fructose. Although the video is over 90 minutes long it has gained viewership of over 1 million views. The Lustig video is called Sugar The Bitter Truth.
So although the conventional wisdom is that fruit juices must be healthy since its just fruit, is simply not correct.
Regardless of the type of juice we drink, apple, orange, acai or whatever, according to Dr. Lustig we will be much healthier if we eat the whole fruit, instead of a liquefied version of the fruit. Part of the reason for this is that with the whole fruit, we get fiber which helps to balance the negative effects of the fructose.
So even when we see labels such as "all-natural" and "no sugar added" we must remember that fructose, or the natural sugar in fruit, is the same as sucrose, or table sugar.
