Discover
the shocking truth about fruit juice
and why it should always be
avoided
Russell Eaton
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Published
by
DeliveredOnline.com at Smashwords
Email:
mailtoATdeliveredonline.com
Copyright 2011 Russell
Eaton, all rights reserved
Smashwords Edition: January 2012
ISBN:
978-1-903339-29-9
This
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This ebook is registered in the UK, USA, and internationally. Copyright material fully protected. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise (except brief extracts for the purpose of review) without permission of the publisher and copyright owner. The text is written in plain language. It is not intended as medical guidance and should not be substituted for a physician’s advice. Neither the publisher nor the author can be held legally responsible for the consequences of any errors, omissions, or advice given in this publication.
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Contents
Why fruit juice is so bad for health
The direct link between fruit juice and osteoporosis
What does the fruit juice industry have to say?
How to restrict fructose consumption
Appendix A: Just what is the sugar content of fruit juice?
Appendix B: The sugar content of whole fruit
Appendix C: The wonder of vegetable juicing
Appendix D: The root cause of osteoporosis
Appendix E: The truth about fruit juice in a nutshell
Another book by the same author
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Introduction
It is a simple fact that fruit juice is bad for your health. This includes all types of fruit juice, whether natural, freshly squeezed, pulped, macerated, blended, extracted, canned, in cartons, or whatever. For the sake of your good health you should totally avoid all kinds of fruit juice. This guide explains exactly why this is so, based on the latest scientific studies published in peer-reviewed journals.
To be clear, here we are talking about fruit juice, not fresh whole fruit. There is a world of difference between the way the human body treats fruit juice and the way it treats fresh whole fruit. A regular modest consumption of fresh whole fruit is excellent and indeed essential for good health.
Of course, when you consume whole fruit you also consume the juice contained in the fruit, so what’s the difference you might ask? As explained in this guide, the way the human body treats and metabolises the sugar contained in fruit juice is biologically very different to the way it treats this same sugar when consumed in the form of whole fruit.
The so-called “obesity epidemic” that is now so prevalent throughout the world is mainly due to over-consumption of sugar (which comes in many guises and is found in many processed foods). But fruit juice (however freshly squeezed and “natural”) is turning out to be a major contributor to the obesity epidemic. Worse still is the fact that the kind of sugar found in all kinds of fruit juice (known as fructose) is particularly harmful. It is now known that fructose is the worst kind of sugar to consume and is far unhealthier that regular table sugar (known as sucrose).
Note: In the USA the term ‘fruit juice’ can only legally be used to describe a product which is 100% fruit juice. A blend of fruit juice(s) with a sweetening agent or with any other ingredients is called a 'juice cocktail' or 'juice drink'. Similar rules apply in most other countries.
In this book, the term ‘fruit juice’ refers to all types of fruit juice whether pure, fresh, pulped or mixed/processed with other ingredients (they are all high in fructose and bad for health).
Pulped/macerated fruit juice is just as bad as “pure” fruit juice, as both are high in harmful fructose. Fruit fibre should be obtained from eating whole fruit rather than from pulped fruit.
We have been brain-washed into believing that fresh fruit juice is a nutritious and health-promoting drink and that sucrose (sugar) is bad for health. If anything, the opposite is true. The fructose content of just about any kind of fruit juice is, as you will see, so bad for health that it far outweighs any benefits derived from any nutritional content of the juice. On the other hand, a modest consumption of whole fruit (with or without added sugar) is much less harmful and less fattening.
Read on to discover the astonishing truth about fruit juice and why it should be avoided at all costs if you want to protect your health and avoid surplus body fat. The regular consumption of fruit juice not only causes obesity but can also be a major factor in many diseases such as osteoporosis, diabetes, heart disease and other illnesses. If you are already overweight, this guide makes essential reading if you want to regain a slim figure and stay healthy.
Each chapter is a self-contained narrative so that the reader can dip in and out of the book with greater ease. Inevitably, therefore, there is a degree of repetition for which your forbearance is sought. Numbers in brackets, e.g. (51), refer to Bibliography and Sources of information.
Note: don’t skip the appendices, and in particular see Appendix C, The wonder of vegetable juicing. "I am firmly convinced that juicing is one of the key factors to giving you a radiant, energetic life, and truly optimal health. I simply do not know of any other single nutritional intervention that has a more profound influence on health than eating and/or juicing fresh, organic vegetables." (Dr. Joseph Mercola, ‘The Best and Worst Vegetables to Eat', published on website http://www.mercola.com, November 29, 2010).
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Why fruit juice is so bad for health
Scientists have now proved beyond doubt that fructose, a cheap form of sugar used in thousands of food products and soft drinks (and found in abundance in fruit juice), can damage human metabolism and is fuelling the obesity crisis. Fruit juice contains a higher concentration of harmful fructose than any kind of processed food. Fruit juice generally contains more calories and more fructose sugar than even regular fizzy drinks!
Apart from fruit juice, soft drinks and some ‘fruit drinks’ are the biggest dietary sources of harmful fructose. For example Glaceau Vitamin Water (made by the Coca-Cola Company) has a whopping 33 grams of sugar per 20-ounce bottle (and 130 calories), which is only 6 grams less than a can of Coke. In fact, the Coco-Cola Company was sued in 2009 for promoting Glaceau Vitamin Water as a healthy product. Not surprisingly, Glaceau Vitamin Water was rated the "Worst Healthy Drink" by ‘Eat This, Not That’. Glaceau Vitamin Water is not water – it's a candy bar in a bottle (56). Much of the sugar in Glaceau Vitamin Water is crystalline fructose, the worst possible kind. Crystalline fructose is 99 percent fructose, and as you will see in this book, fructose consumption is super-bad for health.
Fructose is known to significantly raise your triglycerides, which in turn raises your risk of heart disease because fructose metabolizes into triglycerides and body fat, not glucose. And if that's not bad enough, crystalline fructose (retailed openly as a sugar alternative) may be contaminated with arsenic, lead, chloride and heavy metals.
Perhaps one of the worst aspects of fructose (and hence fruit juice) is the harm it causes to the liver. As explained in the chapter “The Science” fructose converts to triglycerides some of which build up within liver cells. This build up of fat prevents the liver from working properly and leads to liver disease (known as cirrhosis or ‘scarring of the liver’). The build up of fat in liver cells also increases the risk of heart disease, strokes and type 2 diabetes, among other health problems.
Studies show that millions of children in the U.S. are suffering from "non alcoholic liver disease" caused by high fructose consumption. Fruit juice is the biggest contributor of fructose in the human diet, and can therefore be regarded as a major contributor of non-alcoholic cirrhosis of the liver.
The Telegraph newspaper in the United Kingdom reported that:
“The condition [of fat build up in the liver] increases the risks of heart disease, strokes and type 2 diabetes, and can lead to cirrhosis -- scarring of the liver -- which is often not detected until it is too late ... There is no medical treatment for the disease, but the extent of it can be reduced by weight loss and improvements in diet.” (Sources: The Telegraph July 2, 2011; How Stuff Works July 1, 2011; Pediatrics October 2006; 118(4): 1388-1393; Digestive Disease 2010; 28(1): 155-161; Journal of Hepatology. July 2011; 55(1): 218–220).
In summary, the importance of avoiding fruit juice as a way of protecting the liver cannot be over-emphasized – here is why:
• Liver burden number one: After eating fructose, 100 percent of the metabolic burden rests on your liver—ONLY your liver can break it down. This is much different than consuming glucose, in which your liver has to break down only 20 percent, and the remaining 80 percent is immediately metabolized and used by the rest of the cells in your body.
• Liver burden number two: Fructose is converted into fat that gets stored in your liver and other tissues as body fat. Part of what makes fructose so bad for your health is that it is metabolized to fat in your body far more rapidly than any other sugar. For example, if you eat 120 calories of fructose, 40 calories are stored as fat. But if you eat the same amount of calories in the form of glucose, less than one calorie gets stored as fat. Consuming fructose is essentially consuming fat!
Metabolically, consuming fructose is very similar to consuming alcohol. The by-products are similar, which is why the effects on the liver are similar. “It is my belief that fructose is the largest dietary factor behind the rising rates of fatty liver disease among today's youth (56).”
Consider the following: the mental/psychological effects of consuming fruit juice compared to alcohol are, of course, quite different, but the physical effects on the body are very similar. "Long-term use of alcohol in excessive quantities is capable of damaging nearly every organ and system in the body (62). The developing adolescent brain is particularly vulnerable to the toxic effects of alcohol (63).
Given that the physical effects of fruit juice are similar to those of alcohol, the long term consumption of fruit juice will similarly be capable of damaging body organs and the brain, and cause a multitude of health problems. The Journal of Nutrition reports a study showing that people who consume high levels of fructose (as found in fruit juice) have a high risk of fatty liver disease that is the same liver disease that can affect regular drinkers and alcoholics (64).
Unfortunately, fructose is found in many processed products, from crackers to salad dressings. Be aware that the food industry tries hard to disguise the word “fructose” on its labels by calling it by different names such as chicory, inulin, iso glucose, glucose-fructose syrup, fruit fructose, fruit sugar and others.