The role of fruit juice in the diet: an overview

Abstract

Summary Over recent years, consumers have shown an increasing interest in health and wellbeing, with many wanting food and drink products that are healthy and nutritious, yet fit in with busy lifestyles. Fruit juice is one beverage that has seen a dramatic increase in consumer purchasing since the 1970s, and is now consumed by nearly half the UK population. While the beneficial effects of consuming diets rich in fruit and vegetables are well documented, the specific health effects of consuming fruit juice are less so. Further, the role of fruit juice in conditions such as obesity has also recently come under scrutiny, due to questions over how liquid calories affect subsequent energy intake. Limitations in the literature in this area include a lack of studies looking at different types of fruit juices and their effects on health, as well as studies that differentiate fruit juice from fruit and vegetable intake. Consuming a diet rich in fruit and vegetables (to which fruit juice can count once towards the 5 A DAY target) can help to reduce an individual's risk of suffering from a variety of chronic diseases, and should therefore be encouraged.

Sugar-containing beverage intake in toddlers and body composition up to age 6 years: The Generation R Study

“…34 The FFQ that we used only specified fruit juices and not other nutritive beverages, so we could not separate fruit concentrates from non-nutritive beverages. We therefore did not know which exact types of SCBs were consumed in our population.…”

Low adherence of Kuwaiti adults to fruit and vegetable dietary guidelines

“…As the current study did not differentiate between types of juice productswhether fresh fruit juice, packaged drinks or nectar-it is not possible to conclude whether the increase in fruit products actually helped to meet the 5-per-day recommendation or if it only reflects the expansion of the Kuwaiti market for sweetened beverages. As pointed out by Caswell, increased consumer understanding, knowledge and proper interpretation when selecting juice products in the market is required to satisfy fruit intake recommendations [22].…”

Deriving a Global Antioxidant Score for Commercial Juices by Multivariate Graphical and Scoring Techniques

“…Therefore, only small portions of berries are consumed fresh, with most of their intake coming from processed foods, such as frozen products, juices (Woodward et al, 2011), jams, and jellies (Caswell, 2009). However, the consumption of blackcurrants as fresh product is restricted due to their short seasonal availability and relatively high cost.…”