Unless you live in a nutrition-deprived cave, you probably know that soda isn’t great for your body. But why isn’t there the same outrage against fruit juices as there is against our favorite fizzy drinks?
Fruit juices contain artificial “flavor packs” and are loaded with sugar and calories. Even if the sugar in fruit is fructose, which is naturally occurring, it’s still harmful to your body when in juice form. Also, refined sugars may still be added to fruit juices (your glass of lemonade didn’t get that sweet without a little help). You can read more about the many horrors of fruit juices in this article.
To help you visualize the unhealthy similarities between fruit juice and soda, here’s a list comparing 12 fruit juices and sodas against each other:
1. Welch’s Grape Juice vs. Mountain Dew
Welch’s photo courtesy of @ohanafoodshop on Instagram | Mountain Dew photo courtesy of @Thomas Hawk on Flickr
Welch’s Grape Juice has a whopping amount of sugar, around two grams more than Mountain Dew, one of the most sugar-filled sodas you can buy. It also clocks in eight more calories.
2. Simply Lemonade vs. Fanta
Simply Lemonade photo courtesy of wikipedia.org | Fanta photo courtesy of commons.wikimedia.org
Fanta may have more calories, but Simply Lemonade still has an insane amount of sugar.
3. Ocean Spray Cherry Juice vs. Pepsi
Pepsi photo courtesy of @Matt Green on Flickr | Ocean Spray photo courtesy of @chaeeun.hong on Instagram
While both still have a similarly high sugar content, Ocean Spray’s Cherry Juice has more calories.
4. Minute Maid Apple Juice vs. Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola photo courtesy of @Oleg Sklyanchuk on Flickr | Minute Maid photo courtesy of @staygorgeousx3 on Instagram
Basically the same sugar content, but there are more calories in this nostalgic fruit drink.
5. Dole Pineapple Juice vs. Dr. Pepper
Dole photo courtesy of @Mike Mozart on Flickr | Dr. Pepper photo courtesy of commons.wikimedia.org
Same story, different characters. This pineapple juice has the same sugar content as Dr. Pepper, but has more calories.
6. Tropicana Orange Juice vs. Sprite
Tropicana photo courtesy of @locosoho on vimeo | Sprite photo courtesy of @javier_boselli on Instagram
Sprite has almost two grams more sugar than this household favorite, but Tropicana’s Orange Juice has almost six more calories for every 100ml.
This listicle is just a microcosm of your supermarket shelf. The dangerous effects of consuming an excessive amount of sugar are too important to be skimmed over in this listicle, but I’ve discussed the topic more in this article. It’s also important to note that because soda also contains high fructose corn syrup, it still is an overall more unhealthy drink. However, juices have an aura of health around them that makes them dangerous, because we’re more likely to consume fruit juices more frequently and in excess.
Hopefully this list will make you think twice before reaching for that huge jug of orange juice during your next shopping trip.