When most people try to lose weight, they watch one number: the scale. But not all weight loss is...
Soda Down, Fruit Juice to Go
By: Scottsdale Weight Loss Center
Published: June 29, 2012
Please Don’t Drink Your Calories if You’re Focused on Weight Loss
Liquid calories are fluids consumed as part of your daily diet that often go unnoticed and...
Rock Climbing: Lose Weight on the Wall
If your weight loss efforts have hit a wall, why not climb it? Rock climbing is becoming an...
Weight Watchers vs. Medical Weight Loss Programs in Scottsdale: Comparing the Results
Many residents in Scottsdale, Phoenix, and Glendale struggle with weight loss plateaus despite...
Arizona Medical Weight Loss Programs vs Online Programs: Which One Provides the Best Results?
The weight loss landscape has shifted significantly with the rise of digital health platforms....
Is Brown Rice Healthier Than White Rice?
Is brown rice better than white rice? Intuitively, one would think that brown rice is much...
After targeting noteworthy culprits like fast food, pastries and soda for the past decade, the war on obesity has moved onto a less-than-obvious enemy—fruit juice.
For those trying to lose weight in Scottsdale and Phoenix, the third segment of the HBO documentary series The Weight of the Nation and numerous recent studies reveal that fruit juice really isn’t a healthier alternative to soda and other sugary drinks.
Despite the seemingly healthy disguise, be warned—fruit juice is soda’s evil twin.
Despite soda’s long-time reign, the fastest growing marketing sector for big beverage companies today is “fruit drinks,” and parents and children are the new favorite target. One obesity expert believes fruit juice is just like soda—consuming these sugar-sweetened drinks not only contributes to the nation’s epidemic but also accounts for more added sugar in our children’s daily diet than any other food.
Regardless of the fact that fruit is a healthy part of any daily diet, when you just squeeze the juice from the fruit you leave the only healthy, fibrous part behind. The key difference between fruit juice and fruit is that calories and sugar delivered in liquid form don’t trigger feelings of fullness and can potentially lead to excess consumption.
Fruit Juice and Obesity
Though several studies show obvious correlations between increased fruit juice consumption and increased risk of obesity and diabetes, there are no studies that show the opposite or that drinking fruit juice has positive health benefits on weight and diabetes.
One-hundred percent fruit juice or not, fruit-juice beverages can contain as much sugar as a regular soda. How is this possible? Most commercial fruit juice is typically derived from concentrates. This often results in higher sugar content than if the juice was squeezed directly from a piece of fruit. However, critics still argue these claims, saying that some fruit juice provides consumers with their daily recommended allowance of essential vitamins. Though this may be true in some cases, the sugar content of such drinks is on-par with that of a soda, and you can easily get these same vitamins in whole fruit or as a multivitamin.
Don’t drink it, eat it.
Medical weight loss patients need to think twice before drinking their daily fruit allowance instead of eating it. If you need a little more motivation, here are some scary sugary drink facts that big beverage companies may not want you to know:
- The 16 most sugary drinks on the market today are all fruit drinks—not sodas.
- The majority of fruit drinks contain only 10 percent real fruit juice.
- According to the FDA, any drink can be labeled a “fruit drink” as long as it has some fruit juice in it—even if it’s less than one percent.
- Just eight ounces of the popular fruit drink Minute Maid Cranberry contains 150 calories. The same amount of regular Coca-Cola only contains 97 calories. To put this in perspective, one deep-fried chicken leg contains 115 calories.
Whether they contain “fruit” juice or not, avoid high calorie fruit drinks when you’re trying to lose weight. If you’re thirsty, drink the best thing there is for you—water. For children in particular, water and low fat milk are the best beverages. If you’re having trouble cutting out unhealthy sugary drinks such as soda and fruit juice from your diet, speak with Dr. Primack and Dr. Ziltzer for support.
Nick
Nick's Story
"I wish I would have come here first. We spend all our time reacting to the next great weight loss tip or program. It might work for a while, but does not last and we end up yo-yoing from one fad to the next – as we gain more weight." Read More
Gina
Lost 44.5 lbs
"I had no trouble adhering to the meals and they really helped catapult my progress! The classes were so beneficial to me because they helped change my thinking about how I viewed health, nutrition, and fitness.
I will always have my relationship with Scottsdale Weight Loss Center. They truly helped me change my life forever." Read More
Lauren
Lost 60 lbs
"Dr. Ziltzer and everyone who I have come in contact with at the Scottsdale Weight Loss office have been so encouraging and I look forward to seeing them each week. It is now a year and 2 months later since I started. I am down 60 lbs., which is the average amount a 9-year-old weighs, it is crazy to think I lost a whole person! I feel amazing, I hit my goal weight in November 2021 just before Thanksgiving. Nothing on my body hurts anymore..." Read More
Chuck
Lost 66 lbs
"The best thing I did was call the Scottsdale Weight Loss Center. I have a lot more energy, I'm not hungry, and it feels great.
You can take it from me that this is a program that produces results. The staff is always positive, supportive, and never judgmental.
Your visits always result in positive reinforcement, no matter if you had a good week or a bad week." Read More
Emily
Lost 101 lbs
"Here I am at the lowest I have been since high school weighing in at 155lbs. I have lost 101 lbs, BMI of 39 when I started, to 21.6, and of course at body fat % of 47.1 to 26.5%. I told myself by my 30th birthday I wanted to be confident in the way I look and I owe it all to SWLC. The entire staff is so welcoming and they are rooting for you just as much as you are rooting for yourself...." Read More
Reviews
Meet Our Team
Robert Ziltzer, MD, FACP, FAAP, FOMA
Obesity Medicine Certified Physician
Diana Bone, FNP-C
Specializing in Obesity Medicine
Craig Primack, MD, FACP, FAAP, MFOMA
Obesity Medicine Certified Physician
Kristen Ash, FNP-C, FNP-BC
Nurse Practitioner
Alicia Earley, FNP-C
Family Nurse Practitioner
