Fruit or Fruit Juice : Which is Better?

People nowadays intake fruit juice as a healthy breakfast in the morning but is it actually healthy? In the field of dietary choices, the debate of choosing between fruit or fruit juice has been a long topic of discussion over the years. With increased awareness among people, their doubts regarding their food choices also increased. Making a healthy choice has become very vital in such scenarios because sometimes consumption of some food items does cause harm, instead of good to your health. The choice between the consumption of whole fruit or fruit juice depends on many variables like convenience, taste and preferences. So, let’s deep dive into the benefits and drawbacks of eating whole fruit or drinking fruit juice so that you will make better choices according to your goals while keeping important aspects in mind.

Fruit v/s fruit juice

1 Nutritional benefits

The ingestion of fruit juice has become so common around us that the every next person is either squeezing fresh fruits in a jar in their kitchens or grabbing a fruit juice can from a grocery store to drink with a very big misconception that it is healthy. People also nowadays recommend each other to drink fruit juice considering it to be healthy but it is not in certain terms. Those who are buying canned and processed fruit juices are the worst. It is not healthy at all. It consists of a variety of preservatives, high levels of sodium content and whatnot which could cause harm to your health. So, canned and processed fruit juices are best to be avoided.

Meanwhile, the other crowd who is squeezing fruits in their glasses are not better either. Now you all will be thinking, but why fruits are fresh, it is homemade, with no preservatives or additional ingredients then how it could possibly be unhealthy? In that case, you need to understand what happens while juicing a fruit. While blending, fruits lose their natural fibre content present in it and the glass of juice has nothing except sugar. Fruit juice has the worst kind of sugar known as fructose which spikes your sugar level because, in the absence of fibre, the sugar is absorbed in the bloodstream very quickly and can make you feel lethargic for the rest of the day after a spike.

On the flip side, consuming whole fruit is very beneficial because a fruit is packed with various nutrients like vitamins, minerals, fibres etc. Additionally, they do have a good amount of water present in them which keeps you hydrated. Fruits like watermelon are best in summer to keep you hydrated with a steady level of energy. As whole fruit juice has fibre present in it, the chances of insulin spikes are almost nil. Because the fibre content slows down the absorption time of sugar in the bloodstream preventing from any glucose spike. In terms of nutritional benefits, whole fruit overweighs fruit juice.

2. Energy level

Many athletes and individuals prefer to drink fruit juice to boost their energy quickly. Fruit juice is in liquid form which makes it easier to get digested compared to the solid form of a fruit. The quicker digestion is helpful to provide more energy in no time. Additionally, fruit juice does not contain fibre in it. Here the absence of fibre is a favourable situation as it accelerates the process of absorption in the bloodstream. Eventually, this leads to a glucose spike, providing a high amount of energy quickly.

3. Convenience

If you are in the hustle-bustle it might be difficult for you to eat a whole fruit except some fruits like banana, mango, berries etc. Fruits like pomegranates, pineapples, watermelons, etc cannot be eaten like others easier ones which can be eaten after washing, peeling and cutting. Some fruits have a certain structure which makes them time-consuming. For instance, pomegranate takes lots of time to extract each seed without any damage. It can also be messy sometimes. In such cases, we have better alternatives to drink a glass of juice instead. Ready-made fruit juice is ready to be served without any additional preparations. For busy individuals, it could be ready-to-go food. You just need to be assured that there are no added sugars or preservatives in it.

4. Weight management

One or two whole oranges can fill you up, but their juice might leave you hungry and can even increase your wanting for more. Drinking fruit juice can hinder your weight loss journey because people usually don’t feel full even after drinking a full glass of juice. It doesn’t create the feeling of fullness easily because of which you might intake more calories than you were supposed to. It could be helpful in weight gain but for weight loss, you should skip fruit juice as quickly as possible. Furthermore, because of glucose spikes, you will soon find yourself in a situation of low energy. So, in order to find energy your body will make you crave for more sugar or potentially increase your hunger level. However, whole fruit can keep you full for longer hours without making you low on energy as it doesn’t cause any glucose spike. Preventing you from unnecessary consumption.

Additional Tips

Conclusion

To sum up, it can be said that, fruits have more benefits than fruit juice. The fibre content present in a whole fruit makes it a better option. According to the American Heart Association and World Health Organisation (WHO), it is recommended that one should juice a whole fruit over fruit juice. The comprehensive analysis discussed above clarifies that in terms of nutritional benefits, fruit overweighs fruit juice. However, when convenience and rapid energy booster are the factors then fruit juice wins. Both have their own advantages and disadvantages for different individuals. For a normal individual, who wants to have a healthy diet with ingestion of fruit or fruit juice, then one should opt for fruit.