Does drinking fruit juice make you fat?

Real fruit juice does not, it’s very healthy. What you have to be careful about is the sweeteners and additives they put in those Twister juices, Juicy Juice and all those similar brands. It’s full of sugars and corn syrup and grossness. That’s what can make you gain weight. Drink 100% real juice and you’ll be happier and healthier.

Well, real juice is delicious, but it’s also much more caloric than you think it is. Certainly moreso than eating fruit, and obviously more than drinking water.

True, but it’s also more filling than just water, and less of a chore to drink than it is for some people who don’t like fruits and vegetables, it’s a nice compromise. :)

Almost everything makes you fat if you consume more than you need. The calories in fruit juice comes from sugars. Your body needs some sugars and a glass of juice is better than a glass of Pepsi nutritionally. If you have a weight problem you might want to eat a piece of fruit instead of juice because of the fiber. And if you are diabetic juice can spike your glucose levels.

For almost everybody a small glass in the morning is more beneficial than not.

Juice cocktails are full of sugar and sweeteners, but real unsweetened juice is perfectly healthy, albeit slightly too caloric to be drinking constantly.

If you’re trying to find something to drink all the time, go with water, tea, or diet sodas.

The natural fructose content in purchased juice can be more concentrated than fresh fruit. If you squeeze your juice fresh it’s okay. But you have to keep in mind that whether you eat it or drink it, one serving is one serving. You have to pay attention to size of portion with juice.

A great answer from galileogirl.

I drink a lot of juice, but when I’m making it from concentrate, I’ll add at least one full extra can of water (so things that require 3 units of water get 4). I find regular juice to be way too sweet and powerful, so diluting it down helps with not only this, but you also get more value for your money.

@asmonet Juicy Juice is 100% juice, no additives.

Juice doesn’t contain fat, but it has a lot of calories! Drink too much and you may gain weight. Sometimes I pour a third of a glass of juice, and fill the rest of the glass with diet Sprite. Yummy, and far fewer calories than a whole glass.

what kind of juice tastes good with diet sprite????

@augustlan: My bad! I was thinking of all those cheap bottled things that are marketed almost exclusively to children, that snuck in there. Once I saw your quip it immediately clicked in my head. You’re right. :)

Diet soda is one of the worst things you can drink. V8 Splash is a great choice, plus you get your dose of veggies.

I’ve awarded the coveted #1 Worst Drink spot to regular sodas that contain insane amounts of sugar and sweeteners.

Diet soda is generally not a good thing to drink because it’s basically artificially sweetened water, and we don’t really know what affect these artificial sweeteners may have on humans in the long run, but it’s still better to drink than regular sodas.

Juice is not the greatest drink either, very high in natural sugars which while better than artificial, are still not great to be consuming a ton of.

With all drinks, it’s way too easy to consume a ridiculous amount of calories (go look up some Starbucks drink information, for instance a regular grande mint mocha frappuchino with whipped topping contains almost 500 calories, that’s one quarter of the average daily recommended intake of 2000 calories), and as with all other foods, if you’re eating more calories than you need to use in a day, your body will save that energy in the form of fat.

That’s why it’s great to develop a love (or at least tolerance) to drinking water throughout the day – it’s what your body wants, and contains no calories. Simply swapping out your regular drink for water will generally result in a few pounds of weight loss by the average cola/juice/Starbucks-drinking person.

@BoyWonder, here’s a quick list off the top of my head: orange juice (both the pulpy and orange drink varieties), any juice with berries (cranberry, raspberry, mixed berry), lemonade, grapefruit, iced tea. Haven’t tried apple juice but I imagine it would also be fine. In fact I’m finding it hard to think of a juice that wouldn’t taste good with Sprite. Sprite is a great mix: it’s not too sweet, its flavours (lemon/lime) blend nicely with juice, and it adds that nice bubbly sparkle and taste.

@dynamicduo That’s why I feel that diet soda is the worst. At least with regular soda you know what you are putting into your body. Both are terrible for you, that’s why I stick with water myself.

If you want to loose weight or you have trouble maintaining your weight don’t drink your calories. If you are very active and weight is not a problem, then go right ahead. Concentrating all the calories and sugars and discarding the fiber is no way to treat a fruit in my opinion. Best to drink water, but I still crave the sweet so I haven’t been able to give up the diet soda yet. I will some day, as I’m afraid all those artificial sweeteners are probably going to kill me before I’m ready to go.

I read recently that fructose, because of the way it’s metabolized in the liver, does not trigger satiety centers the way glucose and sucrose do. So you won’t feel like you’ve consumed calories.

So, fruit juice and high-fructose corn syrup sodas won’t make you feel any less hungry.