Not drinking fruit juices is a simple, yet effective strategy for losing weight. Rather, replace the juices with water and whole fruit.
To be clear, losing weight is multifaceted effort and while this is a good strategy, it needs to be part of a holistic scheme that reduces your overall caloric intake below your expenditures and marries it with an effective body strengthening program (does sound expert-like or what).
By the way, the food industry is not going to help you. The food industry would tell you that fruit juices are healthy. In fact, one calorie counting site rates all juices in the “A” range. Nice. They rate all sodas in the “F” range – that I can live with.
But for those looking to lose weight, I gotta give fruit juices a “D” or a “C-” at best.
Back to the not drinking juice strategy; despite its simplicity, a number of factors work against us everyday in implementing this effective approach.
Orange juice, apple juice, and grape juice are so much a part of our societal diet that to abandon it completely requires a lot of proactive effort on our part. Telling someone not to drink orange juice would be like telling someone not to brush their teeth in the morning – or something like that.
Yet, in an overweight society that clearly is not getting its needed fruits and vegetable, it is so easy to tell people to just drink it. Go into any supermarket and there are a plethora of juices, smoothies, and drinks that purport to have the equivalent of a vineyard or an orchard in it. So, we grab a bottle, drink it, and be satisfied in knowing that we just drink 19 servings of a cornupocia array of fruits, vegetables, and superfoods – sweet.
Or not…
Here are some comparison for you to consider. An 8 oz glass of orange juice has 110 calories and 26 grams of carbohydrates (mostly fructose sugar). 1 medium orange has 59 calories and 13 grams of carbs. Cup of apple juice has 117 calories and 29 grams of carbs. A whole apple had 80 calories and 22 grams. Grape juice has 170 calories and 42 grams. A cup, or handful of grapes have 60 calories and 16 grams.
But let me be clear – I am not a register dietitian nor do I have a stable of men and women who have lost 12 and half tons of blubber following my directions. This is just my uninformed opinion.
And it seems to be me that if losing weight is an objective, drinking your fruit is a bad way to go. Unless you drink it the way I do. Every morning, I toss 4 or 5 frozen, whole strawberries, 1 banana, 4 or 5 chunks of fresh pineapples, 1 yoplait yogurt, and a cup of water in my magic bullet and blend. Through the course of the day, I’ll also generally have an apple or two, a couple or 3 cuties (like mandarin oranges), grapes or whatever fresh fruit I happen to have in the fridge.
Confession: I love POG. POG is a passionfruit, orange, and guava juices concoction sold in Hawaii. It has 100 calories and 26 grams of sugar in a cup. It’s my cheat drink that I have a few times a week. But no other fruit juices or drinks, plus no soda’s or any concoctions with high fructose corn syrup. It’s okay to have a cheat drink, if it helps with your sanity – just manage it and minimize it.
Anyway…
Putting aside the benefits of eating a whole fruit, it is tempting for some to drink, say a tall glass of orange juice, or a couple glasses of apple juices as a quite way to get the fruit or as a “healthy” alternative to sodas and the like. Unfortunately, the calories add up, and so does the sugar count. And you get none of the fiber and synergy of eating whole, raw food.
Plus, juices just will not give you that full feeling in your tummy.
Just a straight comparison, an 8 oz serving of each fruit juice gives you 397 calories and 97 grams of carbs versus 199 calories and 51 grams. The difference is significant.
As an aside, I should state that V8 vegetable juice at 50 calories a serving is a great drink but its sodium count of 480 mg is just too high (even its low sodium cousin has 140 mgs).
So, for losing weight, this simple, yet effective strategy can be a winning (or losing) choice to make. Next, eliminating all the sodas and their ridiculous 36 plus grams of high fructose corn syrup – oh I’m sorry, my bad – corn sugar.
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Great writing.Wow, this is amazing research I have never come across. I also like taking fruit juices and have now come up with the idea why my weight gain keep going up than me losing. Love this and would like to follow your inspiring advice. Thanks.