Fruit Juice Fail

This new data allows us to answer all sorts of burning questions, and play “Which is healthier?” Which is healthier—a single orange, or a cup of freshly squeezed orange juice, which is made from about three oranges? Who thinks it’s the orange? The juice? Even though it takes multiple oranges to make that much juice, it’s still healthier to eat one of the whole fruit.

What about an apple, versus a cup of apple juice, a cup of dried apple rings, and a cup of applesauce? I’ll give you a hint: it’s the apple. But what’s second best?  Do you think it’s the juice? Who thinks it’s the apple rings? The applesauce? Well, it’s not the juice. In fact, there was even a study showing these great cancer-fighting properties of apple “waste,” which is everything left over after pressing the apples for juice. So, everything that’s not in the juice helps fight cancer. Another study of purple grape juice found 90% of the nutrition thrown in the trash when we just drink the juice, rather than eat the whole fruit.

Anyway, if you chose applesauce, you can take a seat, too. Dried fruit in general (without added sugar) is very healthy.

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 Dianne Moore.

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• U.S. Department of Agriculture. Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity (ORAC) of Selected Foods—2007. November 2007.
• M.J. McCann, C.I. Gill, G. O’Brien, J.R. Rao, W.C. McRoberts, P. Hughes, R. McEntee, & I.R. Rowland. Anti-cancer properties of phenolics from apple waste on colon carcinogenesis in vitro. Food Chem Toxicol, 45(7):1224-1230, 2007.
• R.T. Threlfall, J.R. Morris, L.R. Howard, C. R. Brownmiller, & T.L. Walker. Pressing effects on yield, quality, and nutraceutical content of juice, seeds, and skins from black beauty and sunbelt grapes. Journal of Food Science, 70:167-171, 2006.