By MONICA ENG, Chicago Tribune
Over the last decade, the nation's war on obesity has targeted some fairly obvious culprits, including fast food, pastries, fried foods and soda.
But recent studies have identified a new, less obvious enemy: fruit juice.
This might surprise the many parents and school districts that in recent years have proudly ditched soda in favor of 100 percent juice. But health experts increasingly agree that it is not a better alternative.
"Juice is just like soda, and I'm saying it right here on camera," pediatric obesity specialist Robert Lustig said in the HBO documentary "Weight of the Nation," produced in conjunction with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "There is no difference. When you take fruit and squeeze it, you throw the fiber in the garbage. That was the good part of the fruit. The juice is nature's way of getting you to eat your fiber."
Since 2001, the American Academy of Pediatrics has advised limiting daily juice consumption to 4 to 6 ounces for children 6 and younger and 8 to 12 ounces (the size of a soda can) for children 7 to 18. The academy's head of environmental health, Jerome Paulson, took it even further when he said in December that children do not need to drink any juice at all.
"Don't drink an apple," he said. "Eat an apple."
Beverage-makers dispute claims that fruit juice and obesity are linked. The Juice Products Association said it supports the pediatrics group's recommendations on juice but added that "current scientific evidence does not support a relationship between being overweight and juice consumption."
In recent months, so-called "sugar sweetened beverages" (often sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup) have come under increasing attack for their contribution to the obesity epidemic. Whether this label should be applied to fruit juice is subject to debate, with some organizations counting only those juices with sugar added.
But even 100 percent juice beverages can contain as much sugar as soda. In addition, most commercial fruit juice is derived from concentrates, which often results in a higher sugar content than if the product were, say, simply squeezed from oranges.
While the public health community is coming to increasing agreement on fruit juice, some believe it could take years to persuade parents and school districts.
Dr. Elsie Taveras, a pediatrician and co-director of the Obesity Prevention Program at Harvard Medical School, said the message on juice has come as a surprise to her patients.
"It's not so difficult to convince a family that soda really has no nutritional benefits," Taveras said. "It's harder to convince families that juice can have almost exactly the same sugar content as a glass of soda."