Fruit juice - just another sugary drink?

Drinking fruit juice is potentially just as bad for you as drinking sugar-sweetened drinks because of its high sugar content, two medical researchers from the University of Glasgow have warned. Writing in The Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology journal, Professor Naveed Sattar and Dr Jason Gill - both of the university's Institute of Cardiovascular and Medical Sciences - call for better labelling of fruit juice containers to make explicit to consumers that they should drink no more than 150ml a day. The Herald: Fruit juices and smoothies "are as bad for health as fizzy drinks" They also recommend a change to the UK Government's current "five-a-day" guidelines, saying these five fruit and vegetable servings should no longer include a portion of fruit juice. Inclusion of fruit juice as a fruit equivalent is "probably counter-productive" because it "fuels the perception that drinking fruit juice is good for health, and thus need not be subject to the limits that many individuals impose on themselves for consumption of less healthy foods". Professor Sattar, who is Professor of Metabolic Medicine, said: "Fruit juice has a similar energy density and sugar content to other sugary drinks, for example: 250ml of apple juice typically contains 110 kcal and 26g of sugar; and 250ml of cola typically contains 105kcal and 26.5g of sugar.