Is drinking fruit juice really harmful?

Drinking juice is a very common thing in our daily life. We drink two cups of juice in the warm sun during weekends and buy boxes of juice at family gatherings. However, there has been some controversy online recently. Some people believe that juice contains fructose and we should pay attention to its safety. So is juice still drinkable? Let's clarify this issue today.

01. What are the types of fruit juices?

Before we begin, we need to make a distinction. There are actually at least three categories of juices that are commonly found.

The first category is fruit juice drinks, which may be the most common type that everyone sees in daily life. They are everywhere in supermarkets. However, if you look carefully at the ingredient list, it is often a variety of chemical raw materials, such as sweeteners, color enhancers, etc., but there is no fruit or very little fruit as an ingredient. Even if there is, it will be xx fruit extracts. I prefer to call this category fruit juice drinks.

Juice is made directly from fruits. Of course, according to the production process, it is divided into concentrated juice and non-concentrated juice (Not From Concentrated, NFC juice)

The second category: concentrated juice, refers to the juice formed by vacuum concentration after fruit juice is squeezed and water is removed. When consuming this type of juice, it is necessary to add an equal amount of natural water lost during the concentration process. Of course, there are also differences in concentration technology. Since heating concentration often causes thermal denaturation, many currently adopt low-temperature vacuum concentration methods.

The third category: Not From Concentrated (NFC juice). There are also special non-concentrated juices on the market. Non-concentrated juices are squeezed directly from fresh fruits, and therefore their advantage is that the nutritional value is basically the same as that of fruits. In order to preserve freshness and prevent spoilage, fresh juices need to be sterilized to a certain extent, and low-temperature sterilization is often used to obtain them.

02. Why drink juice?

In fact, the simplest answer is: it is the same as eating fruit, especially non-concentrated juice, which is almost the same as fruit.

Because fruits are essential foods in our daily lives. For example, the widespread use of vitamin C was due to the discovery that eating fruits could relieve scurvy in sailors on long voyages. In fact, fruits not only contain vitamin C, but also a variety of other vitamins and mineral elements. In addition, fruits themselves can provide humans with dietary fiber to promote digestion.

Because of this, various dietary guidelines include fruits in daily intake. For example, my country's dietary guidelines recommend consuming 4-8 taels of fruit per day, preferably with more than 2 types.

Therefore, if you want to maintain the same nutrition as fruit, non-concentrated juice is currently a commonly recommended choice, and everyone can pay close attention to the instructions.

Since we can eat fruits normally, why does non-concentrated juice, which is the same as fruit, become a matter of concern for many people?

This brings us to an important ingredient in fruit: fructose.

03. Magical fructose

Fructose is indeed a magical thing. In fact, it itself is not harmful. Think about it, the main sugar that can be digested and absorbed by organisms in nature is sucrose. When sucrose decomposes, it is divided into two, one is fructose and the other is glucose.

Natural fruits are rich in fructose

It can be said that if fructose is unhealthy, we may be in trouble. However, our ancestors have eaten fruits since ancient times, and we still eat a lot of fruits today, including dietary recommendations that include fruit intake. How can fructose be harmful?

In fact, what is really harmful is not fructose, but "excessive" fructose.

Many people mention the harm of fructose, which mainly refers to: excessive intake of fructose causes metabolic stress on the body. For example, excessive fructose can cause fat metabolism disorders, high blood pressure, high blood sugar, etc., especially a large amount of fructose will increase the metabolic pressure on the liver, thus causing health risks.

But, let me say it again: too much, too much, too much.

In other words, excessive intake is the key to the harm of fructose. For normal people, you cannot conclude the health harm of normal intake of fructose, and if it is not excessive, fructose will be completely absorbed by the human body, which is nothing to worry about.

Because of this, controlling quantity is key.

04. How much fructose is considered acceptable?

So, how much is not considered exceeding the standard?

There is currently no national standard for fructose intake. Based on a number of studies, it is generally believed that our daily intake should not exceed 30-60 grams. We take 50 grams as a standard, and exceeding this number is considered excessive.

For example, 100g of apples contain 10.4g of fructose. According to this standard, if you only eat apples as fruit, it will take about one pound of apples for you to have an excess of fructose.

Therefore, it is not easy to exceed the limit under normal circumstances. Don't stop eating fruit because of the concern about fructose, which is not worth the loss. And don't be too resistant to non-concentrated fruit juice.

However, you must pay attention to buying real non-concentrated juice, not juice drinks, as I mentioned at the beginning. The former is mainly squeezed from fruits, while the latter is often mixed with various flavors and the like, and it is easy to exceed the fructose limit. Among them, non-concentrated juice is currently a common recommended choice. You can pay close attention to the ingredient list to see if it is the juice we understand.

In general, fruit juice is good for the human body and can be consumed daily as long as it is not excessive. In fact, as the saying goes: too much is as bad as too little, anything is not good if it is excessive.