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The Fruit Whose Juice Is Healthier

Can you name a fruit whose processed juice is healthier than just eating the fruit itself?

April 26, 2012 |
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The Fruit Whose Juice Is Healthier, 5.0 out of 5 based on 4 ratings

Sources Cited

Floegel A, Kim DO, Chung SJ, Song WO, Fernandez ML, Bruno RS, Koo SI, Chun OK. Development and validation of an algorithm to establish a total antioxidant capacity database of the US diet. Int J Food Sci Nutr. 2010 Sep;61(6):600-23.

Burton-Freeman B. Tomato Consumption and Health: Emerging Benefits. American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine. 2011 Mar/Apr:Vol. 5 no. 2:182-191.

Acknowledgements

Images thanks to ComùnicaTI and Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis via Wikimedia Commons.

Transcript

Can you name a fruit, whose processed juice is healthier than just eating the fruit itself?
Here’s the VCEAC of fruits and their juice. The black bars are the frui, the white bars are the juice. VCEAC stands for vitamin C equivalent antioxidant capacity. So for example, even though apples don’t actually contain 150mg of vitamin C itself, they have other antioxidants that add up to the equivalent of that much antioxidant power. As you can see, across the board as you go from fruit to juice, the antioxidant capacity is slashed. In fact the only reason the grape juice was even that high is because it happened to have extra vitamin C added, so it cheated.
But wait a second, what is this? A fruit’s juice that has significantly more antioxidants, and even greater phytonutrient availability? And the answer is… Tomato juice. About twice the antioxidant power and 5 times the phytonutrient lycopene.
And no, it was not a trick question you may use it as a vegetable, but it’s a fruit, because it’s got seeds. Don’t tell that to the Supreme Court, though, who, having nothing better to do, ruled in 1893 that tomatoes were vegetables, though there were among the same Justices that ruled Mr. Scott was not a citizen, so I wouldn’t listen to them.
Arkansas decided to have it both ways, declaring tomatoes both, the official state fruit and the official state vegetable.

To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by veganmontreal.

To help out on the site please email volunteer@nutritionfacts.org

Dr. Michael Greger

Doctor's Note

In general, though, whole foods are best. See my 33 videos on processed foods. For more on the bioavailability of phytonutrients, see my videosRaw Food Nutrient Absorption and Raw Food Diet Myths. And I have hundreds of other videos on more than a thousand subjects you are welcome to check out. Everything on this website is free!

For some context, please check out my associated blog post: Eating Green to Prevent Cancer

  • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/mgreger/ Michael Greger M.D.

    In general, though, whole foods are best. See my 33 videos on processed foods. For more on the bioavailability of phytonutrients, see my videos Raw Food Nutrient Absorption and Raw Food Diet Myths. And I have hundreds of other videos on more than a thousand subjects you are welcome to check out. Everything on this website is free!

  • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/rudys/ RudyS

    Are the fruit juices in question store bought juices that have been pasteurized or are they “raw” fruit juices from a home juicer? I expect the answer is the former considering the added vitamin C mentioned in the grape juice but I want to be sure. As always, these videos are dearly appreciated.

  • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/randy/ randy

    Just something to notice on the graph, cranberry juice fared well in comparison to the others in relation to whole vs juice. True, the juice had less but certainly not by a great deal.

    Also the VCE, assuming no added vitamin C was at quite a respectable level, 100mg, higher than all the rest than grape juice which had a vitamin C additive.

    Just curious but I was wondering how Pomegranate juice/whole rated in this mix.
    Juice is readily available usually without additives and is certainly advertised heavily for all it’s health benefits (excluding the POM companies false documentation on arterial plaque removal).

  • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/vegannutritionist/ VeganNutritionist

    This discounts the benefits of juice fasting which can help the body detox because it spends only a fraction of the time digesting its foods and more bodily processes can be used for detoxification.

    And more isn’t always better. Sometimes it is simply just more.

  • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/organicsauce/ organicsauce

    So, if I take a tomato and juice it instead of eating it (that same tomato), it’s higher on the VCE scale? What happens during the juicing process that boosts this up?

  • Judas_priest

    Perhaps the good doctor should stick to nutrition.  The Dred Scott decision was in 1857, and no justice then sitting was on the court when it decided the status of tomatoes under the then extant tariff law.

    • Michael Greger M.D.

      You’re totally right JP! Though the terms of Stephen Johnson Field and Samuel Freeman Miller evidently came close, they did not overlap with both cases–yikes! I’m so sorry about the mistake.  Maybe I should leave history buffing to the buffs! I’m going to re-record the video to correct the error. Thank you so much for pointing it out. As always, anyone who points out any error on the site wins a free DVD of their choosing. Please email your mailing address to me at mhg1@cornell.edu with your selection and I’ll get it out to you first thing on Monday!

      • Michael Greger M.D.

        All right–rerecorded! Changed from “among the Justices” to “a batch of Justices away from.” Thank you again so much, and urge you to please continue to help me make the site as robust as possible.

  • pbeach

    Knowledge is knowing tomato is a fruit, wisdom is knowing not to use it in a fruit salad.

  • Valnaples

    Avocado is ALSO a fruit…just saying…love my low-sodium V-8 every day as a snack with some nuts or seeds…also I’ve read that cooked tomatoes are more nutritious than raw tomatoes…BOTH are very good to eat.

  • Xavdeq

    I think this interesting review deserves a precision:
    what kind of juice is it?
    Fresh pressed, bottled/canned? Pasteurized?
    For tomato it is cooked I think

  • Michael Greger M.D.

    In general, though, whole foods are best. See my 33 videos on processed foods. For more on the bioavailability of phytonutrients, see my videos Raw Food Nutrient Absorption and Raw Food Diet Myths. And I have hundreds of other videos on more than a thousand subjects you are welcome to check out. Everything on this website is free!

  • Thea

    I’m curious about the dark bars in the graph which show antioxidant levels for the fruits themselves.  Dr. Greger says that vitamin C was manually added to the grape juice, but surely nothing was injected into the fruit itself?

    So, when looking at the levels for the fruits, it is odd to me that grapes show so high.  I thought I remembered (and please forgive me if I get it incorrectly) that Dr. Greger once called grapes something like, “the wonderbread of the fruit world” or something like that.  (Or maybe that was iceberg lettuce and vegetables?)

    Whether I got the exact quote right or not, it seems like grapes have not fared well in previous videos when talking about antioxidant levels?  And yet, in this video, grapes look great!  Is there an explanation that pulls all of this together?  I know that grapes are not bad for me.  But how do they really stack up compared to other fruits in terms of adding lots of health? 

    Perhaps this is a case of using different methods to measure antioxidants?  (I remember one Dr. video which explains reported differences in antioxidant levels in foods by looking at the different methods used to measure antioxidant levels.) 

    Just mildly curious/confused. 

    • Michael Greger M.D.

      Thank you for your question Thea! The seedless pale green table grapes are indeed comparatively pitiful, and so “white” grape juice is probably not a far cry from sugar water, but purple grape juice (as was used in this study) is made from gorgeous deep blue “concord” grapes which are unfortunately hard to find commercially, since consumers tend to prefer seedless grapes–a shame!

      • Thea

        Thanks so much for your reply Dr. Greger.  Such great info.

        Now, though, I admit to being uneasy about one of my favorite fruits: watermelon!   You pretty much can’t get the seeded kind in stores any more and anyway, I admit to being one of those people who prefers seedless.  But now I have to wonder if I’m missing out on a bunch of nutrition that way.  Oh sigh.  :-)

        Thanks again.

        PS: Note: even if I log in, this new version of your website still only allows the “post as” button.  It does not recognize me as being logged in.

  • Umar

    great web site im planning on losing weight and this has all the nutrional information i could ever want !

    • Michael Greger M.D.

      I’m so glad you’re finding my work useful!

  • Schilly76

    Could you do a video on juicing vs blending fruits and veggies? Which one is more beneficial and why?

  • http://twitter.com/Lainer Lainer

    Is this a chart using Juicers like the Breville and Norwalk or the processing of juice by plants that pasteurize?

  • Stephen Albers

    I’d like to see the same statistics for the vegetables people often juice, like carrot, celery, and kale!

  • Brody

    Keep in mind that the tomato – like cucumber, squash and peppers – is botanically a fruit, but is considered a vegetable in culinary terms.

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