Many people are shocked to find out that fruit juice actually contains the SAME amount of sugar as soda.
Just like any other substance we ingest, fruit juices can make you fat.
Last night when I visited the super market, I took these pictures to show the similarities between the two beverages.
When you look at the nutritional info on a popular brand fruit juice, you will see that there is 10.1g of sugar per 100mls. That is about two tsp of sugar. An average glass holds 250mls, so potentially you are consuming 25g of sugar or 5tsp in a 10 second gulp! As the fruit has been juiced, a lot of the fiber has been lost, leaving mainly sugar and water. 
On the right you will see the nutritional info from a popular soda manufacturer. The total sugar per 100mls is 10.6g. Only 0.5g more than the juice!
Fruit juices and soda, when consumed alone, catapult their sugars into our blood stream within minutes after consumption. As a result, this makes our blood sugar levels spike, triggering a large insulin release to bring our sugar levels back into line. Insulin is a hormone which is responsible for storing body fat and needs to be avoided. Admittedly, soda does have slightly worse effects on blood sugar levels due to its sugars being in a more simple form. (I will post more soon about the effects of unstable blood sugar levels and insulin)
Both beverages however both have approximately the same calorie content.
So the other reason why juices can make us gain weight is because calorie conscious people often make the mistake of only taking into consideration calories consumed from food. We have always been told that soda is bad (which it is) and fruit juice is healthy, so who would have thought that downing a few glasses of juice a day could actually make you fat!? Four glasses of juice a day is approximately 400 calories! This can easily throw your daily calorie goals way off if not factored into your eating plan.
Now, just because fruit juices are not great for you, that doesn’t mean that fruit is not. An intact piece of fruit contains fiber which when ingested, slows down the release of blood sugar and limits the chances of the body releasing insulin. For more info on the effects different fruits have on your sugar levels, I suggest you get hold of a book called “The Glycemic Index”.
Instead of consuming fruit juices, try squeezing half a citrus fruit in a glass of sparklin
g water and dropping some Stevia in to sweeten things up. Stevia is a completely natural sweetener made from the leaves of the Stevia plant.
Give it a go and lay off the juice!
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The diet starts Monday 