Do you like your orange juice with or without bits?
Rather than a matter of taste or preferences, there are nutritional implications that we should all be aware of when making our decision.
As we know, the consumption of fruits and vegetables is key for a healthy diet and lifestyle, and the British Nutrition Foundation emphasises in the consumption of more than 5 portions of these per day.
Nevertheless, the way in which we consume fruit, whole or as a juice, differ in regards to how these affect our health. The problem is the amount of free sugar that we consume. When we eat oranges juiced, there is a difference with the sugar present when compared with eating an orange whole. When we start to juice an orange, we remove the fibre and the sugar present in the fruit turns into free sugar.
The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends limiting the consumption of free sugar. WHO considers free sugars as the sugar, such as table sugar, added by manufacturers or consumers and the sugars that can be found in honey, syrup or juices.
Why there is more sugar in an orange juice than eating the whole fruit?
When making the juice, we eliminate the fibre that slows down the absorption of sugar, in addition, we usually consume more fruit than we would eat it regularly. Therefore, it is recommended to limit your consumption to 150ml per day, which represents 1 of the 5 recommended servings of fruit and vegetables.
Other studies reveal that the risk of suffering from diseases such as type 2 diabetes increases in people who drink juices on a regular basis than in those who consume the fruit whole.
Our recommendation is to blend the whole fruit, instead of taking the juice without the pulp, as this way we retain the fibre that is naturally found in the orange.