Smoothies and fruit juices are a new risk to health

[jakobe]

It's often quite surprising to read the ingredient list on these smoothies. They consist largely of apple juice concentrate, and rather small amounts of the fruits advertised on the front.

[iamshs]

This is what I would like to know more about. Other day I picked up a 32oz smoothie, which said this is equivalent to 40 strawberries, 1 banana and 6 apples. How is that possible in only $5? Do they get fruits so cheap to make up for other costs? And true enough, there was strawberry puree, banana puree but apple juice concentrate and apple puree in it.

[eru]

Bananas are also common.

[DanielBMarkham]

Fruit juices maybe. Smoothies are a much more complex issue.

I make my own smoothies, 3 or 4 a week.

I know what goes in there. I put 1, sometimes 2 cups of fruit or berries. No added sugar, no fruit mixes, no "smoothie mix" stuff. I also add Greek Yogurt, protein, and all sorts of other mostly glycemic-neutral items.

I've also seen pre-canned and restaurant smoothies that I wouldn't touch with a ten-foot pole. Some of these things are sugar bombs. Incredible amount of glycemic impact. You'd be better off just getting a milkshake.

But for me, two cups of fruit a day is not a significant health risk at all. While I completely agree that fruit juice and smoothie consumption can be just another sugary alternative to soft drinks, they don't have to be. Unlike store bought fruit juices and soft drinks, with smoothies the entire purpose is that the drinker is in control over exactly what they're consuming.

[nmerouze]

The problem is not fruit juices, smoothies or sugar. The problem is that if you drink calories in addition to meals, you get too much calories and you will fatten.

I've been drinking fruits, fruit juices and smoothies instead of most other carbs for a year now and I feel great without being fat. It's just about calories.

[dmix]

Calories and fat have been the go-to for mainstream publications as the cause of obesity. But I'd highly recommend watching this talk about high-fructose corn syrup:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM

It makes a great argument that high-fructose corn syrup might be single handily the cause of the explosion in obesity in the USA in the last two decades.

[jkat]

"feeling great" != healthy; "not fat" != healthy

A calorie isn't a calorie. The impact that 100 calories of vodka has on your body vs, say, 100 calories of Kale is significant. The body uses different strategies to break down different types of molecules. There can be toxins. There can be impact on the gut flora. Not to mention the impact that these all have on the feeling of "fullness" (which the article mentions).

[vanderZwan]

You are grossly oversimplifying a complicated process of digesting food and its interaction with the overal metabolism of the body. Yes, calories play a factor, but also in what form you ingest them. Then there's genetic factors, gut bacteria, physical exercise and probably a whole slew of other things that interact with each other.

[sudomal]

It is kind of obvious advice. By drinking juice, you are consuming an unusually large amount of processed fruit. I hardly touch the stuff. Stick to water or tea or whatever.

[jonnathanson]

It seems obvious, but you'd be amazed how many people don't do the mental math. I've actually had this conversation while waiting in line with someone as he got a Jamba Juice.

Friend: "Why aren't you getting one?"

Me: "Too much sugar. I'm trying to eat better these days."

Friend: "What?! This is a smoothie! There's nothing healthier!"

Me: "But you just saw them grind up 8 oranges, 5 bananas, and 2 pounds of strawberries and put them in a single cup."

Friend: "So?! Fruit is healthy, dumbass!"

Me: "Would you ever eat that much fruit in one sitting?"

I'll stop before it becomes painful. :) But you get the point. People have strong mental associations between fruit and health, no doubt conditioned by years and years of advertising, and USDA guidelines, and so on. But they don't get the whole "too much of a good thing" logic.

That's what makes smoothies particularly dangerous. People know they're not making a great choice when they drink a Coke. People firmly believe they're making a great choice when they drink sugary smoothies and fruit juices. And Jamba Juice, despite being a sugar bomb, at least uses whole fruit. A lot of the packaged drinks use heavily processed crap with added sugar.

[harrytuttle]

Agreed

I drink water, black coffee, tea, vodka and terribly illegal moonshine.

If you've ever made jam (jello to our American cousins) before adding the sugar to your stewed fruit, taste it. Definitely lots of sugar in there!

[alan_cx]

Cant people just eat actual fruit? Is that really so inconvenient these days? All that energy wasted to process, package, transport, etc. Just eat a damn fruit.

I'd love to know how much of this pointlessly processed food contributes to environmental problems compared to cars, for example.

[a8da6b0c91d]

This is what I don't get about the soylent thing. You can walk into any drug store or corner store and buy a few canned foods that together offer complete nutrition. How the heck is mixing a special powdered drink any easier than opening a can of oysters and a can of sauerkraut and downing the contents? There isn't even a glass to wash with the latter.

There is some sort of odd cultural glitch going on in favor of drinks as "healthful." Drink foods make people think of the medicinal brews of yore? I don't know.

[16s]

Diabetes too. That's a huge problem in the US. And many people who are diabetic are not excessively over-weight. Those who are not diabetic, are pre-diabetic.

"Over 25 million people in the US have diabetes, and close to 80 million are pre-diabetic." - From American Diabetes Association

IMO, this problem is way larger than the former cigarette health problem as more people consume sugary drinks and foods than smoked cigarettes.

[ihsw]

Indeed, the scale of the issue extends to the very young. The worst cases of smoking-related cancer are the result of starting smoking at a very young age, not unlike how obesity and type 1 diabetes are especially destructive when encountered at very young ages.

[dodyg]

Fruits contain fibers that are beneficial for your digestive system and control the spike of sugar level in you body. If you put them in a blender, you destroy much of the fibers and one of the major benefit of eating fruit.

[technel]

Blending speeds up digestion and reduces satiety versus eating whole fruit, but (unlike juicing) I haven't seen any evidence that it destroys fiber. Do you have a reference?

[coin]

Or worse, removing the fiber during the juicing process.

[adamdicarlo]

Does chewing partly destroy the fibers, too?

[IgorPartola]

For those making their own smoothies: I use kefir as a base. It is thicker, has very little, easily overpowered taste, has the kinds and amounts of probiotics that yogurt claims but often fails to deliver, and is easier to digest than milk. I normally add a banana, protein powder, and sometimes berries (which are lower on calories than an equivalent amount of fruit). Delicious, and aside from the protein powder, these are all things I would consume as individual items.

[ChrisNorstrom]

DO NOT DRINK FRUIT JUICES / SMOOTHIES without a straw. The acidity from the fruit will demineralize and erode your teeth.

Here's what happened to my two front teeth. http://min.us/lbzsDfIjfJqxOz

Luckily my two front teeth are large enough to sand and grind past the damaged bottom portions and look normal again. It happened in just 2 weeks of drinking fruit juices twice a day.

[s_q_b]

We need a social-shift that treats sugary drinks more like we treat alcohol. I'm not saying let's only sell Coca-Cola to 21-year-olds, but rather that the social stigma should be different.

A sugary beverage should be a celebratory drink, reserved for special occasions, like beer or wine, not a staple of our diet.

[xd]

I don't see society conforming to your ideals any time soon. Hell, I love nothing more than celebrating the end of a hard days work with a beer.

IMO people need to worry about sitting down all day way before worrying about sugary drinks.

[cliffu]

I think your point is muddied by "celebratory" and "special occasions", which is too bad because it's a good point; but it's going to be lost on people who have a beer or glass of wine with dinner, even though we probably all agree that drinking a "big gulp" beer at work is inappropriate and maybe we should feel that way about colas too.

[JohnTHaller]

Unfortunately, the 'junk drink' companies have worked VERY hard to get soda et al to be treated as every day, every meal drinks. Heck, Coke was working for a while to come up with a way to have every home have a Coke faucet in the kitchen next to water many years back.

[joemaller1]

Well yeah. The health benefits of fruit are generally oversold anyway. But this will be met with mockery, "I can't have soda and now fruit* is bad for me too?! Scientists are dumb."

* this is where they miss the point.

[meerita]

Everything will be killing us in the future. Now it's the smoothies and fruit juices. I don't know what this health-society pretends, if ending all kind of consuming substances or really wasting time producing FUD. No offense to anyone.

[ihsw]

Yes, however there is a coordinated effort on a global scale to cause people to be addicted to a substance to the detriment of their health. That is the key difference.

[hrkristian]

Why would anyone be offended? For some odd reason you're just exaggerating as if you haven't even bothered reading the article, or the valuable comments here either for that matter.

[JoeAltmaier]

Same old risk: drink too much sugary stuff, get fat.

[frooxie]

Well, I didn't know that a smoothie was worse than the fruit it's made of. (Not that I drink smoothies anyway.)

[elchief]

Does anyone have evidence that blending and immediately drinking fruit has less fibre than eating the same amount of fruit unblended?

[Swizec]

Make your own smoothies -> super healthy stuff with plenty of energy to get you through the afternoon slump.

[vixen99]

Depending on the fruit you use you can still overdose on fructose which is, as everyone knows by now, metabolized (interesting story) almost only by the liver - just like alcohol.

[j_m_b]

Better title: Smoothies and fruit juices are THE new risk to health

[mcot2]

The problem also seems to be portion size related. On the larger end of the spectrum some of these smoothies can be over 20 ounces.

[Karunamon]

>All sugars are equal in their bad effects, says Popkin

Wait, what? I thought that HFCS was significantly worse than everything else.

[Shorel]

I was scared of the title.

Thankfully, I make my own smoothies, with no sugar.