Lots of Juice Linked to Obesity

We're constantly being bombarded by messages about health--like this photo I snapped of the side of a truck, advertising the POM brand of fruit juices and tea. Notice how the "O" in POM is shaped like a heart. Must be good for you--right? After all, fruits are good for you; they're full of anti-oxidants and all that good stuff.



But fruit juices are also full of calories. Sixteen ounces of POM (480 ml) is 320 calories, for example. You'd have to eat at least three pomegranates (at 105 calories apiece) to get the same calorie-count as in one bottle of POM juice.

Chances are you wouldn't eat three pomegranates in a row. But it's pretty easy to drink 16 oz of POM juice--that's just two glasses. Our bodies don't notice calories in liquid form; liquids don't fill us up the way solid food does. So it's very easy to overindulge on fruit juices.

Indeed, a recent study from Deakin University in Australia found that children who consume just over 16 ounces (500 ml) of fruit drinks a day were more likely to be overweight or obese. And those who drank more than 25 ounces (750 ml) were twice as likely to be overweight or obese.

Now as I've said before, an association doesn't prove cause and effect. It doesn't prove that drinking lots of juice is what caused these children to be overweight. (Also, I haven't been able to find the original study, just press accounts.) But in this case, particularly given the calorie counts, it should make you mighty suspicious.

Bottom line: fruit is better than fruit juice. If you drink fruit juices, limit your consumption.

See also obesity prevention program at Deakin University in Australia.