smoothies and fruit juice sugar health, Digi Mart USA News (United Kingdom): Fruit juices and smoothies are often seen as healthy foods. But a new government report has said they contain the sugars most linked to weight gain and tooth decay.
Dietitians and doctors increasingly divide sugar into two categories. Free sugars are refined sugars added to food, as well as sources such as honey or agave syrup.
Intrinsic sugars are the naturally occurring sugars found inside whole fruits and vegetables.
Many studies have found that people who consume more added free sugars tend to be more overweight, and children have more tooth decay. People who eat more fruit and vegetables generally have better health.
Official advice is to limit free sugars to no more than 5 per cent of calories. In the UK, people eat about twice that on average.
The report from the Government’s Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN) examined whether sugar from processed fruit is advisable. When fruit is blended, crushed, pressed or sieved, as in shop-bought or home-made smoothies and juices, the cellular structure is damaged and the sugars are classed as free sugars.
Fruit that is only chopped, diced or grated leaves the cell structure largely intact.
Why free sugars released from plant cells are more harmful is still debated. The report does not settle the question.
A common claim is that they raise blood sugar quickly. However, a recent small trial found that whole fruits and blended smoothies with the same sugar content raised blood sugar over similar time periods.
Dr Carrie Ruxton, a dietitian at fitness centre SALT St Andrews, said chewing whole fruit slows consumption, giving the body time to release hormones that promote fullness, so people tend to eat less. Whole fruit also contains fibre, vitamins and minerals, and fibre boosts fullness.
A home-made smoothie made without removing any part of the fruit keeps these nutrients, although blending still releases free sugars. Fruit juice, where the liquid is extracted, loses much of its fibre.
People who dislike whole fruit or worry about blending can make a fruit salad from chopped produce. The SACN report says this does not release significant free sugars.
Professor Ciaran Forde, a food scientist at Wageningen University & Research in the Netherlands, said smoothies and juices are easy to overconsume. “If I consume an apple I know I have had the nutrient intake of a single apple,” he said.
“But if I drink a litre of apple juice, I don’t have an indication of how many apples I have consumed.”
Juices and smoothies should not be banned but taken in moderation. NHS advice is that they can count as one of the recommended five daily portions of fruit and vegetables.
Forde said whole fruits or whole-fruit juices are likely to have a largely positive effect on nutrient intake, and finding new ways to increase fruit and vegetable consumption is a good thing in populations that do not eat enough of them.
