Study: Drinking Fruit Juice Worse Than Sugary Soda For Type 2 Diabetes Risk

Dr. Julie Palmer says don't get fooled into drinking OJ

What could be healthier for you than a icy cold glass of orange juice, right? What could be more Americana and good for you than that?! I mean it comes from freshly-squeezed oranges which are grown on trees, so it HAS to be better for you than sugary soda, doesn't it? Wellllllll, not exactly as a new study published in a major medical journal from researchers out of Boston University revealed this week.

Lead researcher Dr. Julie Palmer, a senior epidemiologist from the Slone Epidemiology Center at Boston University, looked at the connection between both fruit juice and sugary soda to Type 2 diabetes as part of the enlightening and still-ongoing prospective Black Women's Health Study featuring a whopping 59,000 African-American women from across the United States. Because Type 2 diabetes has hit the black female population especially hard increasing exponentially in the past few years (double that of white women), Dr. Palmer wanted to find out specifically why and what she discovered is gonna shock a whole lotta people.

Initial questionnaires went sent out to the study participants in 1995 to obtain baseline information on height, weight, demographic characteristics, medical history, usual diet and other factors. Then follow-up questionnaires soliciting information with updates on various health conditions, lifestyle changes, and diet among other things have been sent out every two years ever since to see if there are any marked changes in the occurrence of Type 2 diabetes or other such diseases.

In all, 2,713 of the study participants (about 4.5 percent) developed Type 2 diabetes in the first ten years since the study began that paralleled with those women who increased their consumption of both sugary sodas and fruit drinks. According to the study, women who drank 2+ sodas per day experienced a 24 percent increase in getting Type 2 diabetes than those who drank less than one soft drink in a month.

Interestingly, Dr. Palmer also found a curious connection between fruit juice and Type 2 diabetes as well. Those women in the study who drank 2+ servings of this "healthy" drink alternative to sugary soda, primarily at breakfast time, saw a 31 percent increase in diabetes risk compared to those who had less than one glass of fruit juice each month.

Hmmmm...

I can remember growing up how much I LOVED drinking Sunny Delight orange juice. And my mom faithfully bought it for me, my brother Kevin, and sister Beverly thinking it was a "healthy" option since it was derived from fruit. Surely this had to be better than all that soda we would be drinking instead, right? Boy, we couldn't have been more wrong if we tried--and we have to blame it partially on the aggressive marketing of the juice lobby led by groups like the Juice Products Association who are in full spin-mode right now promoting juice as playing "an important role in a healthy diet." NOT!

Some will argue that it's fruit and that alone should make it healthy. While I sincerely believe both whole fruits and vegetables are an important part of a healthy diet (including a low-carb one, by the way!), it's a blatant copout to say they're all good for you when clearly they are not. Blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, cantaloupe, and honeydew are excellent choices for fruit in the latter stages of your low-carb life management plan. But juicing even any of these fruits simply concentrates the sugar that much more and you just don't need it. Can you imagine all the sugar you'd be adding to your body with apple, pineapple, or orange juice? EEEEEEK! No thanks! I don't need to get Type 2 diabetes.

The take-home message from this study is that fruit juice is equal if not MORE harmful to your risk for Type 2 diabetes as sugary soda is and should be avoided for the same reasons. Most of the people reading this at my blog are saying to themselves, "well duh?!" But ask just about anyone you know which of the two is healthier between fruit juice and sugary soda and you're gonna have a virtually unanimous choice for the fruit juice. My answer would be NEITHER and I haven't drank either one since I started livin' la vida low-carb in January 2004. And I have NO intentions of EVER doing so again.

Dr. Palmer said fruit drinks were favored over sugary soda by the participants in the study and that fruit drink consumption in the United States has doubled since the late 1970s. This along with the strong marketing of fruit juice as "healthy" beginning in the 1980s and still to this day has led us to higher and higher rates of Type 2 diabetes, Dr. Palmer noted.

"The public should be made aware that these drinks are not a healthy alternative to soft drinks with regard to risk of type 2 diabetes," she exclaimed.

This study was funded by the National Cancer Institute and the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases and was published in the July 28, 2008 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.

You can e-mail Dr. Julie Palmer about her study at jpalmer@slone.bu.edu.

See what some of my fellow low-carbers had to say about this study on fruit juice:

- Dr. Jonny Bowden
- Connie Bennett
- Discussion at my forum
- Carol Bardelli
- Low-Carb Friends
- Sean Kelley

Low-Carb Energy And Power In A Can With XS

Two letters that define superior quality and low-carb excellence

One of the great things about being a blogger about nutrition and health is the fact that I am always coming across brand new products that can help people who are livin' la vida low-carb and wanting to supplement their healthy lifestyle change with only the best low-carb food and beverage products on the market.

While there are a lot of protein and energy drinks that claim to be good for you, the truth is most of them are so loaded with excessive sugar and carbohydrates that you'd be better off skipping it than subjecting your body to an all-out carbfest! But the good news is there are some excellent products available that have removed the sugar while maintaining the excellent taste and high standards you come to expect from health drinks.

The brand name is XS and I had the distinct privilege of trying a few of their products recently. I must say how impressed I was not only with the very pleasant taste of these energy and protein drinks, but also the quality ingredients found therein.

Here's just a brief review of each of the three products I tried:

XS™ Power Nutrition Protein Shake – Vanilla


Ingredients: Water, Protein Blend (Milk Protein Concentrate, Calcium Caseinate, Whey Protein Concentrate, Whey Protein Isolate), High Oleic Safflower Oil, Natural Flavor, Cellulose Gel, Potassium Phosphate, Nutrilite C-Lenium Blend (Ascorbic Acid, Acerola Concentrate, Sodium Selenite), Sucralose (Splenda), Soy Lecithin, Cellulose Gum, Carrageenan, Mono And Diglycerides.

This 11-ounce protein shake contains an unbelieveable 35g protein in it (WOW!) to help you build up muscle during your workout. The vanilla flavor was extremely pleasant without the gritty, chalky texture that many of these kind of shakes tend to have. Packed with healthy antioxidants and phytonutrients, this shake also gives you most of the recommended daily allowance of calcium and vitamin C your body needs to function properly. It uses a proprietary free radical-fighting formula to help those of you who like your workouts to go to the extreme. Slightly sweetened with Splenda, I can't say enough about this quality low-sugar, low-carb protein shake. It's even kosher! Try some for yourself!

ALSO AVAILABLE IN CHOCOLATE FUDGE AND STRAWBERRIES & CREAM

XS™ Energy Drink – Cranberry Grape Blast


Ingredients: Carbonated Water, Taurine, L-Glutamine, Citric Acid, Cranberry Juice Concentrate, Adaptogen Blend (Eleutherococcus Senticosus, Panax Ginseng, Panax Quinquefolium, Schisandra, Astragalus, and Reishi), Natural Flavors, Acesulfame Potassium (ACE-K), Caffeine, Sodium Benzoate, Potassium Sorbate, Sucralose (Splenda), Niacin, Pantothenic Acid, Pyridoxine HCL, Red 40, Cyanocobalamin

XS™ Energy Drink – Citrus Blast


Ingredients: Carbonated Water, Taurine, L-Glutamine, Citric Acid, Adaptogen Blend (Eleutherococcus Senticosus, Panax Ginseng, Panax Quinquefolium, Schisandra, Astragalus, and Reishi), Natural Flavors, Acesulfame Potassium (ACE-K), Caffeine, Sodium Benzoate, Potassium Sorbate, Sucralose (Splenda), Niacin, Pantothenic Acid, Pyridoxine HCL, Yellow 5, Cyanocobalamin

Looking for a sugar-free, low-carb energy drink that will put a little zip in your step and power you up for you day? Then get ready for these delicious energy drinks that give you all of that without any sugar that you don't need on your low-carb lifestyle. If you want to get your B vitamins, then this is the drink for you: 100% RDA for B3 and B5, 300% for B6 and an astronomical 4900% for B12! WOWsers!!! This one is also sweetened with Splenda and ACE-K, so you know it's gonna taste good, too! ZERO CARBS and only 8 little calories. Wake up to the energy you need!

ALSO AVAILABLE IN SEVERAL OTHER FLAVORS AND CAFFEINE-FREE VERSIONS

Give these XS products a try for yourself if you only want the best low-carb energy and power products I've seen! Be sure to let them know you are livin' la vida low-carb and appreciate having excellent products for your low-carb lifestyle!

If you have any specific questions or comments regarding the XS products, then please feel free to use this contact page to correspond with a friendly customer service team member who will be happy to help you. Tell them Jimmy Moore sent you and let me know what you think about these products!

Crystal Light's Sweetener Schizophrenia

Why have Splenda in some products, aspartame in others?

I have been so thrilled to see the reemergence of Splenda showing up in a lot of products this year that used to contain aspartame in them. From Smuckers jelly to Mt. Olive pickles, it looks like the food manufacturers are FINALLY listening to the concerns of low-carbers and others who don't want aspartame in their diet at all anymore. Yet, it's almost impossible to avoid it nowadays.

For example, last night my throat started feeling a little sore and dry, so I knew a cold was coming on. I bought some sugar-free Robitussen when it was on sale a few months ago and didn't read the labels. Guess what the #1 ingredient in it is? It's ASPARTAME! UGH! Oh well, this is the only exception I'll make to my aspartame-free diet plan because I want to feel better from my cold and Robitussen usually does the trick.

While the move from Nutrasweet to Splenda has been slow, it is happening. But have you seen what Kraft Foods is doing with their Crystal Light products? One of my readers wrote to me so excited about discovering that Crystal Light now has a Splenda/acesulfame potassium (ACE-K) blend to sweeten their products and proudly displays the Splenda logo on their packaging. I was not aware of this, so I did a little investigating today and found something rather odd.

It is true that the ready-to-drink Crystal Light products do have Splenda and ACE-K in them, but the powdered versions of Crystal Light still contains aspartame. HUH?! What's up with that? If you are going to use Splenda in the ones that are already mixed, then why not use Splenda in the ones you mix yourself, hmm?

For the record, here are the ingredients in the ready-to-drink raspberry ice flavor of Crystal Light:

Ingredients: WATER, CONTAINS LESS THAN 2% OF NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR, CITRIC ACID, MALIC ACID, SUCRALOSE AND ACESULFAME POTASSIUM (SWEETENERS), RED 40, SODIUM BENZOATE, POTASSIUM SORBATE, AND CALCIUM DISODIUM EDTA (PRESERVATIVES).

Now, here's that same flavor in the powder mix version:

Ingredients: MALTODEXTRIN (FROM CORN), CITRIC AND MALIC ACIDS (PROVIDES TARTNESS), RASPBERRY JUICE SOLIDS, ASPARTAME (SWEETENER), RED 40, CONTAINS LESS THAN 2% OF NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR, CALCIUM PHOSPHATE (PREVENTS CAKING), ACESULFAME POTASSIUM (SWEETENER), BLUE 1.

Nevermind the fact that the powder mix has the corn-based maltodextrin in it (see, Michael Pollan was right about corn being in EVERYTHING!), there is a bunch of aspartame in this stuff. I don't know about you, but I don't want all of that in my body because it can bring on headaches and stall your weight loss. BAD NEWS INDEED!

According to the Crystal Light page at KraftFoods.com, the aspartame powder mix has a short storage life once it is prepared by the consumer since it has to remain refrigerated to prevent spoilage.

"For freshest taste, beverages containing Aspartame sweetener should always be consumed within 5 days of preparing."

Ah, so therein lies the problem with putting aspartame in the ready-to-drink versions of Crystal Light. It won't last very long before going bad. That's why sucralose (Splenda) is used instead because the shelf life is longer without compromising the taste and quality of the end product.

So my question is this: Why not put Splenda in ALL of the Crystal Light products? What is the purpose of having aspartame as the sweetener in the powder mix and Splenda as the sweetener in the ready-to-drink products? It looks like we have a case of sweetener schizophrenia going on here, Kraft!

If you want to endear yourself to the discriminating sugar-free consumer who prefers to avoid aspartame in favor of Splenda, then why not change your sweetener to Splenda across the board? Doesn't that just make good business sense anyway without confusing your customer base? Consistency and honesty go a long way towards building a good rapport with customers, especially those who are concerned about their health.

My reader who saw the Splenda logo on a ready-to-drink Crystal Light product automatically assumed that Splenda was now in all of the Crystal Light products now. How many people like him will be surprised to see aspartame STILL in the powder mix? That can't be good for public relations, would it Kraft?

Let me tell you, for fans of juice Crystal Light is the bomb! These ready-to-drink products come in lemonade, raspberry ice, lemon tea, strawberry kiwi, peach iced tea, sunrise classic orange, and ruby red grapefruit. Just be aware that the Splenda is NOT in the powder mixes...yet! Perhaps they'll read this and hear from YOU and decide the time has come to take the plunge and go all-Splenda! We can hope, can't we?

Use this Contact Us page to provide Kraft with your feedback about putting Splenda in the Crystal Light powder mix, too. We might just convince them it's a good idea, so make your voice heard today! And let me know if you see Splenda pop up in any other products that used to contain Nutrasweet.