Are you drinking real juice or fake juice?

So often I hear people say they had some juice to drink and when I ask them what juice, they respond with lemonade or a fruit punch.  Neither lemonade or fruit punch are real juice but mostly sugar water.  Students in my class have to keep a 24-hour record of all the foods and beverages they eat.  They then put the foods and beverages into the right food group.  A student put a well-known brand of fruit punch under fruit as she thought it was a juice.  I looked up the ingredients and there was actually no fruit and no juice in this beverage.  It was just flavored sugar water.  This student actually had no fruit or juice in her diet that day.

How do you know if what you are drinking is real juice?  Consumer Reports has a great article, Decoding Fruit Juice Labels that helps you understand what is real juice, part juice and just flavored sugar water. 

100% Juice – this is the healthy choice as it is all juice with no added sugar.  Actually, the Food and Drug Administration mandates that “fruit juice” be just that – the juice of fruit that is not diluted down with water.  Some brands may have added some sugar but 100% fruit juice means the product is all juice and nothing added.  Look at the ingredients to be sure it is just 100% fruit juice.

Choose 100% juice in a carton, not plastic container.

Juice Drink, Fruit Punch – watch out – not real juice.  If it has the word “drink” or the words "Fruit Punch" on the label, you are not buying 100% juice.  Juice drinks are often a combination of some juice, water and added sugars.  There are some that are 50% juice but others contain less than 50% juice.  

Fruit punch, juice drinks are not 100% juice.

Juice from Concentrate – students often ask me if Juice from Concentrate, or even frozen juice that you add water to, is real juice.  Yes – it is fine to have juice from concentrate or to buy frozen juice and add water.  Basically, the manufacturer took real, 100% juice and removed most of the water.  Then the water was added back or “reconstituted”.  This “reconstituted” juice can still be sold as 100% juice and it is just as healthy as 100% juice that hadn’t been reconstituted.

Diet Juice or Diet Cocktails – “diet” means something has been removed or reduced.  These are not 100% juice but contain some real juice and probably some artificial sweetener to make the drink taste sweet.  Thus, you are getting some real juice.  Some people try to avoid artificial sweeteners but for others, this isn’t a bad choice and can be a refreshing drink on a hot day.

Reduced Sugar Juices – I have a relative that likes to buy juice that has less “sugar”.  The “sugar” in real juice is not added sugar so is not really a sugar we have to cut back on.  The Dietary Guidelines recommend we limit “added sugars”, not the naturally present fructose in fruit and juice.  The Food and Drug Administration says “reduced sugar juices” have to have 25% less sugar than 100% juice.  Manufacturers often add a sugar substitute to make up for removing some fructose so is it really a healthier option? 

Vitamin C – how often do you see a label boasting, “provides 100% vitamin C”?  Well, that’s great but almost all real fruit juice provides vitamin C naturally.  One doesn’t’ need to buy a fake juice that has vitamin C added to get the vitamin C you need each day.  Often these “100% vitamin C” beverages are fruit drinks are not real juice, contain a lot of added sugar, added flavorings and are missing many of the nutrients that real juice provides. 

Pictures of fruit – just because a label has beautiful images of fruit on the label doesn’t mean the fruit drink contains any fruit at all.  Consumer Reports notes, “Sunny D Orange Strawberry features images of oranges and strawberries but has just 5% fruit juice – and no strawberry juice”.  No strawberries but it does contain high fructose corn syrup, some artificial flavors and food dye as the color red 40 is added.  Real juice doesn’t need artificial food dyes, or high fructose corn syrup as real juice is naturally colored and naturally sweetened with fructose.

Strawberries are missing in this Sunny D.

What kind of juice are you and your family drinking – real or fake?  I like real juice and drink some orange, grapefruit or other real juice every morning.  To me it is odd to see so many parents buying fake juice for their kids.  Kids today have so much sugar in their diets, why add more with fake juice drinks?  When buying juice, focus on buying real juice, not fake juice.  If you are not sure, look at the ingredients and look for 100% juice.   Try to buy juice in a carton, not a plastic container as we are getting too much plastic in our diets (see:  How much plastic are you eating?)  Growing up juice used to come in glass containers, but rarely so now.  So, my husband tries to buy real 100% juice in cartons as much as he can.  Healthier for us and healthier for the environment.

Sources:  Decoding Fruit Juice Labels , notes, , How much plastic are you eating?  Image Sources:  juice , Sunny D , juice drink