Freshly squeezed fruit juice versus a piece of fruit: equally healthy?

Two hundred grams of vegetables and two pieces of fruit—who didn’t grow up with that as a child? Yet it turns out we still don’t eat enough fruit: just one piece of fruit a day. And that is usually an apple, because it is the most popular piece of fruit in the Netherlands. Isn’t drinking freshly squeezed (apple) juice, orange juice or a delicious smoothie simply the solution to our fruit deficiency?

Juicing is hot, and especially in summer, a freshly squeezed juice is incredibly delicious. You throw in any piece of fruit you like and hey presto: all your vitamins taken care of, without having to eat a piece of fruit. But is a fruit juice just as healthy?

Health benefits down the drain

Unfortunately for all juice lovers, drinking fruit, although very tasty, is genuinely less healthy. The vitamins and fibre in fruit are what make it so healthy. Much of that is lost when making juice, so you miss out on many health benefits. ‘You essentially squeeze all the healthy elements in a piece of fruit to pieces. Not entirely, of course, because some remains in the juice, but never as much as when you eat a whole piece of fruit,’ says nutrition scientist Jana Van Stappen of the Catholic University in Leuven in AD.

Fruit juice is liquid, which is a disadvantage

Although the Wheel of Five encourages us to eat two pieces of fruit a day, drinking fruit juice is not included. The reason is the risk of obesity and type 2 diabetes. Huh? That has to do with the amount of sugar. There is just as much sugar in 100 grams of fruit juice as in one piece of orange. Nothing wrong with that. ‘But one glass of orange juice requires three to four oranges, and that makes a big difference. So if you drink a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice, you consume quite a lot of sugar in a short time. In addition, liquids reach the intestines faster than solid foods. Logical: you simply drink faster than you chew. But this also means that your blood glucose and insulin levels will peak faster and higher than when you eat a piece of fruit. Chewing is also better for your metabolism,’ says Jana.

Read also:

• Why it’s better to wash and cut your own vegetables and fruit
• Fresh groceries for 10x longer: here’s how
• Brilliant: with this machine, you can turn anything into ice cream

Source: Voedingscentrum & AD