Young people are popular with "grape juice". Is fruit and vegetable juice really low in calories and nutritious? This article explains how to drink it more healthily!

With the improvement of health awareness, weight management has become the focus of many people. This year, the "Weight Management Year" campaign continues to advance. Topics such as "The country calls on you to lose weight" and "The country does not agree with you getting fat" continue to gain popularity, and various weight loss methods emerge in an endless stream. Among them, the fruit and vegetable juice weight loss method has quickly become a popular choice due to its "natural and healthy" label.

Kale, celery, cucumber...

In recent years, vegetables have moved from the vegetable market to the beverage store.

Various companies have launched new fruit and vegetable drinks

Focus on the concept of health, wellness and weight loss

Kale has a bitter taste

It has also become a new favorite in beverage shops

What is the nutritional value of fruit and vegetable juice?

Is it reliable to lose weight by juicing fruit and vegetable juice?

So are “0 sugar, 0 calories, 0 fat” drinks an option?

How to drink to be healthier?

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Are fruit and vegetable juices healthier?

0 1 The nutritional value of fruit and vegetable juice is ≠ the nutritional value of fruits and vegetables

Eating the right amount of fruits and vegetables has many health benefits. The Chinese Dietary Guidelines recommend that we "have vegetables at every meal and eat fruits every day." However, drinking fruit and vegetable juice does not show the same health benefits as eating fruits and vegetables directly.

In 2024, a systematic review and meta-analysis analyzed the relationship between 100% fruit and vegetable juice and health, including anthropometric parameters, body composition, blood pressure and vascular function, blood lipids, blood glucose homeostasis, inflammation and oxidative stress markers, cognitive function, exercise performance, intestinal microbiota composition and bacterial infection. The final result is that the effect of 100% fruit and vegetable juice on human health is very limited and further research is needed.

In general, eating fruits and vegetables is healthy, but drinking fruit and vegetable juice is not healthier.

0 2Nutrient loss occurs during the production of fruit and vegetable juice

During the production process, fruit and vegetable juice will lose some nutrients, such as dietary fiber, vitamin C, polyphenol antioxidants, etc.

When juicing, most of the water-soluble nutrients go into the juice, while the insoluble dietary fiber remains in the residue. Data shows that 100 grams of carrots contain 2.8 grams of fiber, but only 0.8 grams remains after juicing. If the residue is filtered out, a lot of dietary fiber will be lost.

Many antioxidants are sensitive to oxygen and will be fully released and oxidized during the juicing process. The high-speed rotation during pulping produces bubbles, which accelerates the contact between vitamin C and oxygen and may cause a loss of more than 80% of vitamin C.

Is it reliable to lose weight by juicing fruits and vegetables?

0 1 Fruit and vegetable juice reduces satiety or overeating

The calories in fruit and vegetable juices depend on the types of fruits and vegetables you choose. High-sugar fruits, such as mangoes and grapes, have higher calories after juicing; in comparison, low-sugar vegetables, such as cucumbers, celery, kale, etc., have lower calories.

Fruit and vegetable juice is liquid, does not need to be chewed, and is quickly emptied from the stomach. In addition, dietary fiber is damaged during the juicing process, which reduces satiety. Therefore, it is difficult to relieve hunger and maintain blood sugar stability after drinking fruit and vegetable juice. Many people may drink too much fruit and vegetable juice or eat more other things to solve the problem of hunger.

0 2 Vegetable juice may contain more sugar

Compared to fruit juice, vegetable juice usually doesn’t taste that good. To make it “taste better”, beverage shops may add flavoring ingredients such as sugar or sweeter fruits, thereby increasing the intake of sugar.

The sugar content in fruit and vegetable juices sold in many milk tea shops and freshly squeezed fruit and vegetable juice shops on the market is usually 8% to 10%, which is not much different from fruit juice and sweet drinks, and is not very beneficial to health.

Therefore, drinking too much pure fruit juice or vegetable juice may cause blood sugar to rise rapidly, which is not very healthy for patients with high blood sugar or diabetes.

Are “0 sugar, 0 calories, 0 fat” drinks available?

In addition to fruit and vegetable juices, many people choose "0 sugar, 0 calories, 0 fat" drinks to reduce calorie intake during weight control. Can they achieve the desired effect?

0 1 “0 sugar” does not mean completely sugar-free

According to national food safety standards:

If the sugar content of a beverage is less than or equal to 0.5 grams per 100 ml, it can be called zero sugar or sugar-free;

If the energy of each 100 ml beverage is less than or equal to 17 kilojoules (about 4 kilocalories), it can be labeled as 0 calories or 0 calories;

A beverage can be called fat-free if its fat content is less than or equal to 0.5 grams per 100 ml.

0 2 Some "0 sugar" drinks are fake 0 sugar

From the perspective of beverage production, the sweetness brought by adding sucrose alone is not rich and pleasant in taste, while adding other "sugars" at the same time will make the beverage more delicious. In addition, the sweetness of some fructose syrup is about 1.5 to 2 times that of sucrose. To achieve the same sweetness, the amount used will be much less than sucrose, and the stability is also higher than sucrose. This type of beverage is often advertised as "0 sucrose", but in fact it still contains sugar.

Fructose syrup is a syrup with a high fructose content and a certain proportion of glucose, usually extracted from corn starch. In essence, the composition of fructose syrup and sucrose is very similar. The health hazards of sucrose, such as increasing the risk of obesity, diabetes, high blood lipids, and dental caries, are all present in fructose syrup.

0 3Drinks with added sugar substitutes should not be consumed for a long time

Some "zero sugar" beverages do not contain sugar, but they still taste sweet because sugar substitutes (also called sweeteners) are used in the beverages to replace sucrose, white sugar, etc.

Many nutrition experts say that sweeteners can disrupt appetite regulation and taste. Long-term consumption of high-intensity sweeteners will make people dependent on high sweetness and may eat more sugar. This is not only not conducive to weight loss, but also not conducive to health, so long-term consumption of sugar-free beverages is not advisable. Some sugar-free beverages also contain caffeine, which can easily lead to addiction if consumed excessively.

Chinese "Health Water"

More suitable for the physique of Chinese babies?

Have you ever drunk Chinese "health water" such as mung bean water, red bean and barley water, tangerine peel water, and longan water in the supermarket?

These drinks do contain ingredients that are both medicine and food in traditional Chinese medicine, but it should be noted that these "health waters" are also beverages, not health products or medicines, and do not have therapeutic effects.

However, compared to sugary drinks and carbonated beverages, the ingredients in these "health waters" are indeed healthier.

How to drink more healthily?

It is recommended that friends who need to control blood sugar and weight should pay attention to the intake of fruit and vegetable juice drinks, or directly choose sugar-free drinks such as tea, lemonade, and warm water.

0 1Choose natural and healthy drinks

It is recommended that you develop the habit of drinking light tea, warm water, lemonade, and scented tea. These natural drinks do not contain sugar and contain a small amount of tea polyphenols, vitamin C and other nutrients that are beneficial to health.

People's taste can be developed. For heavy lovers of sweet drinks, if they are not used to quitting sweet drinks at first, they can start by diluting the sweet drinks with warm water and gradually transition to the above-mentioned healthy drinks.

0 2Learn to read the ingredient list: Identify "invisible sugar"

When choosing a drink, take half a minute to look at the ingredient list. If it contains sucrose, white sugar, fructose syrup, corn syrup, maltose syrup, etc., you should choose it carefully. You should also pay attention to drinks marked with "0 sucrose" or "sugar-free".

0 3Learn to read the nutrition facts table: estimate the amount of added sugar intake

For beverages, carbohydrates in the nutrition facts table generally represent the added sugar content. By observing the carbohydrate content in 100 ml of a drink, we can calculate the actual added sugar intake of the drink. Then, we can compare it with the daily added sugar intake of 25 grams to determine whether to choose this drink.

0 4Learn to make your own healthy drinks

Homemade drinks can better control the sugar content. If you make fruit and vegetable juice at home, choose fresh seasonal fruits and vegetables, control the proportion of fruits, and add more vegetables to prevent excessive sugar. Try not to filter to retain the fiber of fruits and vegetables. You can also add mint leaves, fresh lemon slices, green tea and other auxiliary seasonings to make the taste richer while reducing the dependence on sweetness. In addition, drink the juice as soon as possible after squeezing it to be careful of bacterial growth.

Source: Agriculture, Rural Areas and Farmers Headlines compiled from CCTV News Client and Farmers Daily

Preliminary review: Chen Jiaqi and Li Shuhao

Review丨Wei Xinghua

Final Review丨Han Yonglin