Everyone knows you shouldn’t drink sugar-sweetened sodas and energy drinks when trying to lose weight, but there is one source of liquid calories that dieters often overlook – it’s fruit juice. The problem with fruit juice is that we see it like something healthy, and it is healthy, but this doesn’t make it safe for your diet.
Juice is incredibly high in calories. One cup of unsweetened apple juice or orange juice is about 120 calories, which is really like a small candy bar.
Think about it: if you drink a cup of natural juice per day, you are consuming one pound’s worth calories each month! You might argue about nutritional value you are getting, but in reality if you were to eat the fruit itself you’d get same benefits in addition to valuable fiber. Not only fiber may reduce your appetite by making you feel full, it also tones your colon, helping you go to bathroom more regularly, which in turn helps you lose even more weight.
In addition, vitamin C loses its antioxidant powers when exposed to oxygen and light, so unless you squeeze juice yourself and drink it immediately, you are probably not getting anything much at all.
Another problem with juice is that people tend to forget liquid calories and do not compensate by limiting calories in other areas.
If you are buying ready juice, you should be aware that many manufacturers sweeten juice with sugar, making situation even worse. Your best bet is simply drink something else and/or eat the whole fruit.