Juicing Fruit
The Promise and Perils of Juicing
Walk down any grocery aisle and you will find juice marketed as a healthy choice. Juicers are sold as a way to pack more nutrients into your day. The pitch sounds reasonable. The research tells a different story.
Fruits and vegetables are the foundation of a healthy diet. That part is settled. But fruit juice is not the same thing as fruit. Here is what the evidence actually shows.
The Apple Study
In one small study, volunteers were given either whole apples or clear apple juice. Researchers then measured blood pressure, waist-to-hip ratio, weight, and cholesterol. The volunteers who ate whole apples saw their cholesterol levels drop. The group drinking clear apple juice saw no such benefit.
The researchers concluded that the fiber in the apple, specifically its pectin and polyphenols, was responsible for the cholesterol benefit. When you juice an apple, those components are separated out and discarded. The juice leaves without them.
To be fair, this study had only 23 subjects and ran for five months. It is interesting but not definitive on its own. The larger body of research, however, points in the same direction.
The Bigger Picture
In 2013, the British Medical Journal published a landmark study following 187,382 people across three independent research groups for an average of 20 years. Among participants who regularly drank fruit juice, the risk of developing type 2 diabetes increased by up to 21 percent. Among those who ate whole fruits, particularly blueberries, grapes, and apples, the risk decreased by up to 23 percent. The researchers estimated that swapping three servings of juice per week for whole fruit would reduce diabetes risk by about 5 percent.
The direction is clear even if the precise numbers vary by study design: juice works against you and whole fruit works for you.
Why Fiber Matters
A typical juicer removes the majority of insoluble fiber from fruit. Juicing advocates claim this makes nutrients easier to absorb. The problem is that removing fiber removes one of the most protective things in the fruit.
Multiple large analyses of cohort studies show that higher dietary fiber intake is associated with a 7 to 24 percent reduction in coronary heart disease risk, depending on the population and fiber type studied. That is a meaningful number across millions of people. Fiber also helps reduce the risk of diverticular disease and supports healthy weight management.
The fiber is not a side effect of eating fruit. It is part of the point.
The Sugar Problem
Consider a single medium orange and a 12-ounce glass of orange juice. The whole orange has about 12 grams of sugar. The glass of orange juice, which requires roughly four to five oranges to produce, has around 30 grams of sugar. That is more than half the daily sugar intake recommended for the average person.
When you eat a whole orange, the fiber slows digestion. The act of chewing and peeling slows things further. Your liver gets time to process the sugar steadily.
When you drink juice, that buffer is gone. Sugar reaches the liver faster and in greater volume. When the liver cannot keep up, it converts the excess to fat. Over time, repeated sugar surges can contribute to insulin resistance, which is strongly associated with obesity, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.
What about blending?
Blending is not the same as juicing. A blender keeps the fiber intact. The fruit is broken down physically but the fiber content stays in the drink. That is an important distinction. If you prefer liquid fruit, a blended smoothie with the whole fruit included is a reasonable option. A juicer that strips out the pulp and seeds is not.
Eat your fruit whole when you can. If you drink juice, treat it as an occasional beverage rather than a health food. And if you want the convenience of a drink, blend it rather than juice it. The fiber is the difference.
What about vegetables? Click Here to learn more about Juicing Vegetables.
Reference Links:
Intake of whole apples or clear apple juice has contrasting effects on plasma lipids in healthy volunteers
Gitte Ravn-Haren, Lars O. Dragsted, Tine Buch-Andersen, Eva N. Jensen, Runa I. Jensen, Mária Németh-Balogh, Brigita Paulovicsová, Anders Bergström, Andrea Wilcks, Tine R. Licht, Jarosław Markowski & Susanne Bügel
European Journal of Nutrition, Published 28 December 2012
Click Here for the Study: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00394-012-0489-z
Fruit consumption and risk of type 2 diabetes: results from three prospective longitudinal cohort studies
Isao Muraki, Fumiaki Imamura, JoAnn E Manson, Frank B Hu, Walter C Willett, Rob M van Dam, Qi Sun
the bmj, Published 2013 Sep 28
Click Here for the Study: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.f6935
Dietary fibre intake and risk of cardiovascular disease: systematic review and meta-analysis
Diane E Threapleton, Darren C Greenwood, Charlotte E L Evans, Christine L Cleghorn, Camilla Nykjaer, Charlotte Woodhead, Janet E Cade, Christopher P Gale, Victoria J Burley
the bjm, Published 19 December 2013
Click Here for the Study: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.f6879
Dietary Fiber Is Beneficial for the Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease: An Umbrella Review of Meta-analyses
Marc P McRae
Journal of Chiropractic Medicine, Published 2017 Oct 25
Click Here for the Study: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcm.2017.05.005
UPDATE 7/27/2021
A study published in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism on June 2, 2021, gave more details on the benefits of whole fruit over fruit juices.
Researchers at Edith Cowan University (ECU) in Western Australia looked into the health of 7,675 adults. The participants in the study were all 25 or older, had undergone blood tests, completed a food frequency questionnaire in 1999-2000 and at the time of the original survey, did not have diabetes.
Fast forward a few years, and the researchers found that participants who ate two servings of fruit a day, but NOT fruit juice, had 36% lower odds of developing diabetes within five years. That's compared to people who ate less than half a serving of fruit a day.
It's important to note, researchers did look to see if fruit juice intake could reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes and their data showed it did NOT. Just the whole fruit contributed to the 36% drop in risk.
A single serving in the study is 150 grams, about the size of a medium apple, orange or banana.
Associations Between Fruit Intake and Risk of Diabetes in the AusDiab Cohort
Nicola P Bondonno , Raymond J Davey , Kevin Murray , Simone Radavelli-Bagatini , Catherine P Bondonno , Lauren C Blekkenhorst , Marc Sim , Dianna J Magliano , Robin M Daly , Jonathan E Shaw , Joshua R Lewis , Jonathan M Hodgson
The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, PublishedVolume 106, Issue 10, October 2021
Click Here for the Study: https://academic.oup.com/jcem/advance-article/doi/10.1210/clinem/dgab335/6290732
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10/31/2020
Updated 7/27/2021
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