Putting a squeeze on the juice habit
SUGAR ISSUE: Drink doesn’t deserve its ‘health halo’
It has been confiscated from British children’s lunch boxes, decried as poisonous by a leading American pediatrician and now may soon be erased from Canada’s official food bible.
Fruit juice has become the latest food demon, assailed by critics as liquid sugar with the nutritional value of soda pop.
Forty years after Anita Bryant told a generation of TV viewers “breakfast without orange juice is like a day without sunshine,” 100 per cent fruit juice is coming under fresh attack in efforts to slow obesity.
Canada’s leading medical journal says Health Canada appears poised to scrub fruit juice from Canada’s Food Guide. Under the guide, half a cup (125 mL) of 100 per cent fruit juice can count as a serving of fruit or vegetables. With that seal of approval, companies can market their juices as providing the equivalency of a serving or two of fruit “in every glass.”
According to the Canadian Medical Association Journal, Dr. Hasan Hutchinson, head of the office of nutrition and health policy, hinted during a recent obesity conference that Health Canada would soon move away from endorsing juice as a whole fruit. “You won’t be seeing that anymore … ,” the CMAJ quoted Hutchinson as stating.
When contacted by the Post, Health Canada would say only that it is “currently reviewing the evidence for our dietary guidance.”
Dietitians and doctors who specialize in obesity say aggressive marketing has given juice a “health halo” — a phenomenon that leads people to think food is healthier than it is.
But others argue that it’s “absurd” to equate fruit juice with artificially sweetened, sugar-loaded soft drinks. A recent study involving more than 14,000 U.S. adults found that, compared with “non-consumers,” people who reported drinking moderate amounts of 100 per cent fruit juice — about eight ounces a day — had lower odds of obesity and better blood sugar and blood-insulin levels.
Lead author Dr. Mark Pereira, an associate professor at the University of Minnesota’s School of Public Health, said a six- or eightounce box of 100 per cent fruit juice is a “far cry” from artificial juices and sugar-sweetened drinks served in big gulp portions. “It’s not fair, it’s not nutritionally accurate and it’s confusing for people and policy to clump 100 per cent fruit juice in with all those other beverages,” he said.
“We’re not seeing any harm from consuming 100 per cent fruit juice,” Pereira added. “In fact, we’re seeing some benefit.”
Ottawa obesity specialist Dr. Yoni Freedhoff begs to differ. “Drop for drop,” he said, fruit juice contains the same amount of calories and sugar as soft drinks, but masquerades as being healthier.
“Nobody slugs back a can of Coca-Cola every morning for breakfast thinking it was a good choice,” said Freedhoff, an assistant professor of family medicine at the University of Ottawa.
“But there are plenty of folks who have a glass of orange juice on their table.”
Apple and orange juices can contain about five teaspoons of sugar per cup, he said, and grape juice double that amount of sugar.
However, Canadian Beverage Association president Jim Goetz says 100 per cent fruit juice helps people achieve “the recommended servings of fruit and vegetables in a way that people find appealing.”
Juice also contains important nutrients such as vitamin C, folate and potassium found naturally in fruits, he added.