Juice Wars - The Best and the Worst for Your Health - Slideshow

What's Wrong with Fruit Juices?

Scientists in Britain issued warnings to remove fruit juice from the recommended "five a day" portions of fruits or vegetables. Juices are the source of many vitamins and minerals, however they have NO fiber, only a LOT of sugar.

The huge volume of sugar in healthy fruit juices is a major contributory factor to:

Obesity

Heart diseases

Cancer

Diabetes

Short stature and obesity in children

Truth about Natural Fruit Juices

Natural fruit juices lose some components of fresh fruits during the process of juicing:

Fiber found in fruits

Colored pigments such as carotenoids and flavonoids, which are good antioxidants.

Natural fruit juices also contain high amount of calories. There is not much of a difference between a colorful glass of juice and a liquid candy!

The Worst Choice

The mixtures of natural fruit juices, juice-flavored beverage or juice drink are the worst choices. They have no real juice in them but are packed with:

Water

High sugar content such as high-fructose corn syrup

Low quantity of nutrients

Best Juices to Drink

The best choice while selecting a juice is vegetable juice.

Vegetable juices are amazing for your health.

Use vegetables to prepare juice and use fruits as a sweetener to flavor them.

Vegetable juices are the best juices to drink because:

They are packed with effective and natural nutrients such as lycopene from tomato.

The vegetable juices, which are pulpy in nature, are enriched with fibers and aid in controlling hunger.

Much less sugar content and lower calories compared with a natural fruit juice is the best thing about them.

The micronutrients are digested within 10 to 15 minutes after drinking.

It helps in nourishment and regeneration of cells, tissues, glands and organs of the body.

Fruit Juice Concentrate: Are They Good?

If you thought fruit juice concentrate was natural and fresh, you are completely wrong.

Concentrating juice removes water as well as the flavor. Later on, flavor packs, which are nothing but a melange of chemicals, are added to get the 'natural' flavor.

The sugar found in fruit juice concentrate is fructose, which causes a comparatively higher damage to liver and cells. Other harmful effects it causes are:

Increases the risk of gout

Rot your tooth

Enamel damage in five year olds

Unsweetened Fruit Juice

Unsweetened juice also counts towards one of your five portions of fruit and vegetables a day.

It is recommended to choose 100% natural fruit juice that is unsweetened.

National Diet and Nutrition survey shows that unsweetened fruit juice can form part of a healthy, balanced diet.

It is an important source of vitamin C in 4 to 18 year old children.

Unsweetened fruit juice intake should be restricted to a mere 150 ml/day to reduce the intake of free sugars.

Dilute natural fruit juice, one part juice to ten parts water for children.

Juices for Weight Loss

There are some juices for weight loss, which are highly beneficial because of various reasons:

It is very easy to digest, so no strain on the digestive system

Detoxifies the body

Best way to rejuvenate and restore the body and its functions

Enhance the uptake of nutritional elements such as vitamins, minerals and other plant based nutrients.

Some of the fruit juices for weight loss include apple, berry, green pineapple, pear, tomato, and beetroot.

Healthy Juice Recipes

Fat Dissolving Fruit Juice Ingredients:

1 pink grapefruit, peeled

2 oranges, peeled

1 bunch mint

1 head romaine lettuce

Preparation:

Blend all the ingredients in a juicer and start your day with this refreshing juice.

Smoothie Recipe for a Healthy You

According to safe food research, smoothies are a delicious way to include fruits and vegetables in your diet.

Smoothies count towards one of your five portions of fruits and vegetables a day.

Smoothies may contain sweetened fruit juice, fruit juice concentrate, fruit syrup, added sugar and preservatives.

Smoothies recipes made with milk or yoghurt are good because they can boost your calcium and dairy intake.

A great smoothie recipe for children is to blend soft fruits such as banana, strawberries or mango with milk or yoghurt.

Mango and Passion Fruit Smoothie

Ingredients:

400g peeled and chopped ripe mango yogurt

20 ml skimmed milk

Juice of 1 lime

4 passion fruits, halved

Preparation:

Mix the mango, yoghurt and milk in a blender to a smooth consistency. Stir lime juice in this and serve in glasses. Add pulp of passion fruit to each glass.

Mango and Banana Smoothie

Ingredients:

1medium mango

1 banana

500 ml orange juice

4 ice cubes

Preparation:

Peel and cut the mango into chunks. Peel and chop the bananas. Blend all the ingredients in a blender to a smooth and thick consistency. Refrigerate it and serve chilled.

The Final Word...

Drink healthy fruit juices in moderation to control the intake of sugar.

Drink fresh juice made from fresh fruits at home.

Fruits and vegetable concentrates can improve levels of antioxidants, pro-vitamins and vitamins such as beta-carotene, vitamin C and E.