# Fruit juice doubles risk of childhood obesity



## Carol (Mar 20, 2007)

Lots of sugar in those drinks...

Fruit juice doubles risk of childhood obesity



> "Soft drinks aren't really the issue in primary school children &#8212; it's fruit juice and drinks," study author Andrea Sanigorski said. "For kids up to about 12 years of age, parents may limit soft drinks but they may not be aware that fruit juice and drinks can be bad for their health as well."





> Dr Suzy Honisett, manager of the Victorian Government's child health program, Kids Go For Your Life, said many parents and carers wrongly believed juice and fruit drinks were a healthy alternative to soft drinks.


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## KempoGuy06 (Mar 20, 2007)

I find this hard to swallow (sorry). Soft drink are loaded with sugar, and caffine, along with other stuff. Yes fruit juices contain sugar (serious think about what foods out there dont have sugar in one form or another) but they also contain vitamins and minerals that a lot kids dont get. Plus if they are active kids the sugars they consume will be broken down just as quickly. My $.02

B


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## terryl965 (Mar 20, 2007)

Now I understand why I'am fat those damm fruit juices, so let me go eat some more Pop Tarts, those have no sugar


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## HKphooey (Mar 20, 2007)

This goes back to the real problem lazy kids.  I remember growing up and eating Stoffer's frozen pizzas every day, ice cream every day in the summer, donuts on the weekend, soda until I puked, and so on....

The difference was I was outside running around from the minute I got home from school until my parents had to drag me inside.  

And I got older, so of that free time was replaced with sports and yardwork, not video games.


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## crushing (Mar 20, 2007)

KempoGuy06 said:


> I find this hard to swallow (sorry). Soft drink are loaded with sugar, and caffine, along with other stuff. Yes fruit juices contain sugar (serious think about what foods out there dont have sugar in one form or another) but they also contain vitamins and minerals that a lot kids dont get. Plus if they are active kids the sugars they consume will be broken down just as quickly. My $.02
> 
> B


 

I think 'fruit juice' only needs to have 10% juice to be considered a juice, the other 90% isn't all that different than a sugary soft drink; basically corn syrup water.

Activity levels are a huge component.  A lot of it comes down to eating/drinking Calories in versus excercising the Calories out.


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## KempoGuy06 (Mar 20, 2007)

crushing said:


> I think 'fruit juice' only needs to have 10% juice to be considered a juice, the other 90% isn't all that different than a sugary soft drink; basically corn syrup water.
> 
> Activity levels are a huge component.  A lot of it comes down to eating/drinking Calories in versus excercising the Calories out.


Very good point. I believe you are correct. Even 100% fruit juices will have sugar, like I said what food doesnt in some form have sugar. But the sugars in 100% juices are not the issue because again they will be demolished by a 12yr olds metabolism (i wish I had one then I would have to workout so hard). Like HK said lazy kids is the real problem also parents who blame everything but themselves on why there kids are overweight (genetics play so role this is understandable but the majority it is not genetics)

B


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## Can (Mar 20, 2007)

Fruit is meant to be eaten, not drunk.  Although an active kid will burn off the sugar, there is no one who would not be better off eating fruit (fiber and all) and drinking water than they would be drinking fruit juice.

There are too many people, kids and adults, who think they need to drink something sweet and flavored.  Water is good for you.  Water quenches thirst.  Children need to be raised to drink water and adults who think they need to drink something sweet should grow up.


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## BrandiJo (Mar 20, 2007)

I would believe that, Fruit drinks, fruit punch, and fruity soda all seem to have the same suger base. Unless its 100% juice odds are its 90% sugar. As for being the cause of childhood obesity i wouldnt go that far because the lack of activity is far more dangerious i would think then the suger content. I drank soda and ate junk food and untill i got my computer i was outside on my bike every day durring the summer, once we got connected to the internet thats where i spent my summer.​


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## Shaderon (Mar 20, 2007)

I agree, it's not mostly what we put in our kids it's what we get out of them..... oh dear that sounds SO wrong....  but I mean in the form of physical excercise.   My daughter is only allowed to play on the computer as a real treat if she's tired from playing or if we've excercised heavily that weekend.  We spend most of our days walking somewhere.    A bit of sugar isn't going to harm them badly, it's not the best food in the world but it's not THAT bad, it's the combined inactivity with the bad diet that's the worst.


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## Andrew Green (Mar 20, 2007)

All together "Carbs are not bad"

I don't buy it at all.  Processed sugar that is used in soft drinks, and natural sugar found in fruit are two different things.

But that is of course providing it is really juice, and not just a non-carbonated fruit flavoured beverage with a hint of juice.

Fat kids solution is easy, send them to the park.  I imagine it won't take much convincing after they get hooked on unorganized sports.  

Problem is too many kids are practically locked up for there own safety, given drugs if they are hyperactive, and babysat by a playstation.  They may be safer from some things indoor, but not from bad health.


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## Can (Mar 20, 2007)

Andrew Green said:


> Processed sugar that is used in soft drinks, and natural sugar found in fruit are two different things.



Really?  How exactly?  Depending on the fruit juice and the more artificial drink you might have a different mix of sugars, but they're all simple sugars that will be digested more or less the same way.  Furthermore, "natural" fruit drinks will often has as much sugar as more artificial drinks and will be just as devoid of the fiber fruit naturally has.


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## Andrew Green (Mar 20, 2007)

Sucrose, table sugar is a Disaccharide: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disaccharide

Fructose and Glucose are Monosaccharides: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monosaccharide

Fructose and Glucose are "simple sugars", Sucrose is not.  Fruit contains all of them, where soft drinks is pretty much all Sucrose.


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## Can (Mar 20, 2007)

Andrew Green said:


> Sucrose, table sugar is a Disaccharide: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disaccharide
> 
> Fructose and Glucose are Monosaccharides: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monosaccharide
> 
> Fructose and Glucose are "simple sugars", Sucrose is not.  Fruit contains all of them, where soft drinks is pretty much all Sucrose.



If anything, soft drinks (in the US at least) would be mostly fructose.


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## Andrew Green (Mar 20, 2007)

Can said:


> If anything, soft drinks (in the US at least) would be mostly fructose.



I looked it up for coke... you got me 

Seems they changed it at some point, although in most countries Sucrose is still used.  

On a somewhat related note, here's a open source cola, so you can brew your own 

http://everythingelse.wordpress.com/2007/02/18/opencola-open-source-coca-cola/


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## Shuto (Mar 20, 2007)

Andrew Green said:


> I
> Seems they changed it at some point, although in most countries Sucrose is still used.


 
Yep, they did change it at some point.  High fructose corn syrup is the preferred industrial sweetener in the US nowadays.


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## Can (Mar 20, 2007)

Shuto said:


> Yep, they did change it at some point.  High fructose corn syrup is the preferred industrial sweetener in the US nowadays.



It's the most highly-subsidized sweetener, thanks to politicians from farm states.


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## KempoGuy06 (Mar 20, 2007)

Can said:


> Fruit is meant to be eaten, not drunk.  Although an active kid will burn off the sugar, there is no one who would not be better off eating fruit (fiber and all) and drinking water than they would be drinking fruit juice.
> 
> There are too many people, kids and adults, who think they need to drink something sweet and flavored.  Water is good for you.  Water quenches thirst.  Children need to be raised to drink water and adults who think they need to drink something sweet should grow up.


This is true for most fruits but not all. There are tons of vitamins in the peel on an orange but do you eat the peel? Only if you burn off the taste buds first, the bitter taste can not be tollerated for long. So jucing them would be more benificial (of course this is probably something to be done at home with a juicer i dont know if manufacturers uses the peel or not).

Also cranberry juice is extremely good for you, ecspecially with the cleansing of the liver, but to get the required amount of minerals out of un-juiced cranberries you would have to eat a massive amount of them.

And ill branch out from 'traditional' fruits. Tomato, cucummber(sp?), squash ad zuccini(sp?) are all fruits but how many kids do you know that eat them. They have vitamins and minerals that are essential to the body and jucing them and mixing them with other convential (for lack of a better term) fruits like apple, peaches, bananas and others you can get those vitamins but still have a great tasting drink.

Yes water is the best thing in the world for you but not all kids will drink enough water, so juices (as long as they are 100%) are a good substitute not a complete one you still need water but a good one from time to time

B


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## blackxpress (Mar 20, 2007)

Put me in the lack of activity category.  True, most kids (American kids anyway) are undernourished.  They exist on diets of junk food and fast food (the dept. of redundancy dept.) that are high in fat and empty calories and low in protein, fiber and essential minerals.  Also, as someone alluded to already, they don't drink near enough water.  That said, the bigger problem is that the typical American kid (like the typical American adult) lives an incredibly sedentary lifestyle.  Too much time in front of the computer screen and the television screen and not enough time playing outdoors or doing strenuous chores.  

The dojo where I train now is adults only.  The one where I used to train, however, had lots of kids.  Only a few of those kids were in good physical shape.  The majority of them were out of shape and several of them were fat.  The only physical activity they ever got was 3 hours a week in the dojo.  Our sensei used to gripe about it all the time.  Last summer we trained outside in the city park.  He made those kids (us adults too) run laps and do calesthenics out there in the summer heat.  It was amazing to see how badly those kids struggled.  

Bottom line: If children aren't forced to push their bodies on a regular basis they will be fat and out of shape regardless of how much or how little fruit juice they drink.


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## Andrew Green (Mar 20, 2007)

KempoGuy06 said:


> Yes water is the best thing in the world for you but not all kids will drink enough water, so juices (as long as they are 100%) are a good substitute not a complete one you still need water but a good one from time to time
> 
> B



That I think is a problem, a lot of things that look like juices, and promote themselves pretty much as juices (and being healthy) are basically soft drinks without bubbles, for example:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3257820.stm


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## KempoGuy06 (Mar 20, 2007)

Andrew Green said:


> That I think is a problem, a lot of things that look like juices, and promote themselves pretty much as juices (and being healthy) are basically soft drinks without bubbles, for example:
> 
> http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3257820.stm


Very interesting article (disturbing as well). I agree I bet that if you went down the juice isle at a local grocery store and took down 20 different bottles based only on the name on the label that only 1-3 (maybe a stretch) would be 100% juice. This is sad and exactly why people should read labels, this might be tedious but it could be worth it. Or shop only at health food stores like Wild Oats

B


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## MJS (Mar 20, 2007)

Many schools are removing the vending machines and alot of the junk from the schools, in hopes to get the kids to eat better.  However, that does not stop them from eating it outside of school.  IMHO, I think 99% of it comes down to two things: moderation and exercise.  Personally, I see nothing wrong with treating yourself once in a while.  Obviously, if you make a fast food restaurant your dining spot everyday for lunch, well, of course you're going to get fat.  But if you stop off at McDonalds once every other month or even once a month, I really don't see the harm in that.

The other thing is being active.  Of course a kid is going to get fat if they come home from school, plop down in front of the tube with the remote in one hand and a bag of chips in the other.  Exercise is key in any diet.

Mike


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## Can (Mar 20, 2007)

KempoGuy06 said:


> This is true for most fruits but not all. There are tons of vitamins in the peel on an orange but do you eat the peel? Only if you burn off the taste buds first, the bitter taste can not be tollerated for long. So jucing them would be more benificial (of course this is probably something to be done at home with a juicer i dont know if manufacturers uses the peel or not).



So the only alternatives in your mind is eat these fruits skin and all or to juice them?  Even a monkey will peel a banana, and eating an orange (peeled) or banana is better for you than drinking the juice.



> Also cranberry juice is extremely good for you, ecspecially with the cleansing of the liver, but to get the required amount of minerals out of un-juiced cranberries you would have to eat a massive amount of them.


How many children, or adults for that matter, need to drink enough cranberry juice to cleanse their liver on a regular basis?



> And ill branch out from 'traditional' fruits. Tomato, cucummber(sp?), squash ad zuccini(sp?) are all fruits but how many kids do you know that eat them.


How many children do you know that drink their zucchini juice?



> They have vitamins and minerals that are essential to the body and jucing them and mixing them with other convential (for lack of a better term) fruits like apple, peaches, bananas and others you can get those vitamins but still have a great tasting drink.


Sure you _can_ get vitamins and minerals from juicing fruits and vegetables.  But if you eat a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, you are wasting time and money by doing so.  If you answer, "but people don't eat their veggies", then that's the problem to address.  They should. Trying to get all of the nutrients through juice, which will be filled with sugar, is an inferior option.



> Yes water is the best thing in the world for you but not all kids will drink enough water, so juices (as long as they are 100%) are a good substitute not a complete one you still need water but a good one from time to time


The solution to this is give kids more water and don't let them drink so much juice.  I didn't drink juice all the time as a kid (it was expensive and my parents were cheap) and I drank plenty of water.  Don't buy the kids juice and they'll drink water.  Buy them juice and other drinks and they'll grow up not liking water.


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## KempoGuy06 (Mar 20, 2007)

Can said:


> So the only alternatives in your mind is eat these fruits skin and all or to juice them? Even a monkey will peel a banana, and eating an orange (peeled) or banana is better for you than drinking the juice.
> 
> How many children, or adults for that matter, need to drink enough cranberry juice to cleanse their liver on a regular basis?
> 
> ...


 
This is not an alternative in my mind this is an option. Whole or jucied the fruit will have sugar. Whole or juiced the fruit is going to be good for you. Im simply providing information on the benefits of drinking juice. 

My fault on the cranberry juice its liver and kidneys, it helps to prevent UTI's as well, which some people are more prone to than others. While not many people need to cleanse these organ on a regular basis the fact that it is good for your health is un deniable. Im simply pointing out that your logic behind only eating the fruit is not always the best option.

Again zucchini is good for you, not a lot of kids eat it, but since the topic of this thread is health chidren I thought I would mention it. 

Also there are some vitamins and minerals that are absorbed by the body through fluids better than through whole foods. Drinkins juies or eating fruits the sugar is going to be there *again name something without sugar in some form or another*

Like I said before I agree with you that water is the best thing for you, but that giving kids juices (100%) every now and then is not a bad choice. 

B


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## Can (Mar 21, 2007)

KempoGuy06 said:


> Drinkins juies or eating fruits the sugar is going to be there *again name something without sugar in some form or another*


 
Of course, the sugar is still there when you eat fruit, but so is the fiber.  Not only is fiber something that many people need more of, but it also slows the absorbsion of the sugar.  The sugar from a whole piece of fruit will be absorbed more gradually due to the fiber.  The sugar in juice will be absorbed just as that in a piece of candy or a glass of soda would be and will result in a similar insulin spike.

I'm not saying juice is going to kill you, just that _eating _your fruits and veggies is better for you than drinking them.  If you're not getting enough veggies, don't drink juice to make up for it.  Eat more veggies.


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## shinbushi (Mar 21, 2007)

KempoGuy06 said:


> Very interesting article (disturbing as well). I agree I bet that if you went down the juice isle at a local grocery store and took down 20 different bottles based only on the name on the label that only 1-3 (maybe a stretch) would be 100% juice. This is sad and exactly why people should read labels, this might be tedious but it could be worth it. Or shop only at health food stores like Wild Oats
> 
> B


Also don't buy juice in the juice isle, only buy juice that they have in the fruit isle, like naked juice and the real 100% natural juice.


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