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A juice, whether homemade or industrial, is not a healthy option. The phrase is as surprising as it is true: gosh!, hadn't we been told that a freshly squeezed orange juice every morning was the cornerstone of a healthy breakfast? Yes, we had been told, but like so many other things in nutrition, it has turned out to be a lie. Why? Does this mean that fruit is not healthy? That's not it: studies agree that fruit is still healthy and is almost essential in any healthy diet; the problem is that a fruit juice is not fruit, but only a portion. But let's go step by step.
The WHO says that, at most, we should consume 25 grams of free sugars a day for optimal health, and this is a maximum recommendation, meaning that, in fact, they are totally dispensable and it is best to reduce consumption as much as possible. Added sugars are related to all kinds of health problems, such as type II diabetes, obesity, or cardiovascular problems. And what are free sugars? They are all those sugars that we or the industry add to foods: the sugar we add to coffee or yogurt, what is in preserves, cookies, drinks, sauces, etc. In contrast, sugars that are naturally present in a food, such as those in fruit, are not a problem. So, what about juice, if it comes from a fruit?
A piece of fruit is always better than a juice, homemade or notWhat happens is that a juice is not a fruit, and that the sugars in a juice, despite being identical to those in fruit, do not behave in the same way in the body. When we make a juice, basically what we are doing is separating the fiber -or pulp- from the liquid. As a consequence, the sugars, which until that moment were healthy because they were associated with fiber, become free. Fiber slows down digestion in the small intestine, which prevents glycemic spikes, which are not at all recommended: when these spikes occur too frequently, insulin resistance begins to develop, which is the prelude to diabetes mellitus, among other problems, according to a lot of studies. Excessive consumption of free sugars, wherever they come from, also causes inflammation or accumulation of visceral fat (markers of poor health). According to Medline, adults who drink two glasses of orange juice a day can gain 5 extra kilos a year. And how much free sugar is in a juice? A simple glass of orange juice has about 29 grams!
Fiber, furthermore, has another interesting effect, because it satiates us faster. Eating five oranges is complicated and, in case we did, we would be so full that there would be no room to eat anything else, but drinking the juice of five oranges is relatively simple and, furthermore, afterwards we could still eat something else. Something similar happens with shakes or smoothies: a shake retains fiber, yes, but it's easy to eat five pieces of fruit at once and this is also too much, because it doesn't satiate us -the fact of not having to chew doesn't send satiety signals to the brain. Does it make sense to drink juice, sometimes? During sports practice it can have its usefulness. And if we drink it very occasionally, it's no problem, but a piece of fruit is always better than a juice, homemade or not.
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