The Dark Truth about Fruit Juices: Court Case, Sugar Content, and Healthy Alternatives
Hello, friends! On February 14th, 2023, I uploaded a video on Fruit Juices. In the video, I revealed the truth about packaged fruit juices: their history, how they’re made, and their impact. But this video caused such a ruckus back then, you may remember that. It was in numerous news articles. There was a court case to remove that video from YouTube. It was so shocking that a company went to court for a health-related video. Had it been another YouTuber, they might have ignored this. It was a single video. But I didn’t give up. I fought the court case. And after a 1.5-year-long legal battle, Justice won. And the court allowed me to reupload this video.
So here I am, back with this video. And, I have some good news for you. Look at this news article. A famous juice manufacturer has decided that they will reduce the sugar content in their packaged juices by 21%. Higher sugar content was the main point of criticism in my video. For all of us, for all health activists, this is a huge win! Our collective efforts have made this possible. I want to dedicate this win to India’s children. They shouldn’t take these packaged fruit juices in their lunchboxes.
But why am I still saying this? Watch this video to find out the truth about these packaged fruit juices.
Unmasking the Deception: Packaged Fruit Juices vs. Health
Hello, friends! Cold drinks like Pepsi and Cola aren’t good for our health, all of us know this by now. But often, as their alternative, people suggest that you should drink fruit juice as it’s healthy. Even the companies making these fruit juices market their products like this: a healthy drink to boost your immunity, full of minerals and vitamins, the small tetra pack filled with nutrition for your child. This is largely marketed towards children.
So friends, how would you feel if I tell you, these packaged fruit juices, in some aspects, are as bad for your health, as these soft drinks like Cola? Come, in today’s video, let us understand this better.
The History of Fruit Juices: From Ayurveda to Tetra Packs
Let’s start with fruits, friends. Are fruits good for our health? Absolutely. There’s no doubt about it. Fruits are an important part of our daily diets. They are rich in vitamins and minerals, are high in fiber and antioxidants as well. Antioxidants help in preventing cancer and heart diseases. Additionally, you’ll find flavonoids in fruits, a type of plant pigment. Research shows that consuming these improves mood as well. Apart from this, numerous research papers tell us that fruits reduce the risk of heart disease, cancer, depression, and diabetes.
But on the other hand, research papers paint packaged fruit juices in another light. A meta-analysis of 4 studies covering approximately 200,000 participants revealed that drinking fruit juices increases the risk of Type 2 Diabetes.
How could this be? Friends, to understand this, we need to understand the history of fruit juices. So come, let’s travel to the past, and check out the development of fruit juices.
Humans have been consuming fruit juices for so long that you will find its mention even in Ayurveda. Ayurveda states that if you are tired, and want to get rid of the fatigue, you need to drink fresh orange juice, with a pinch of rock salt in it. The word ‘Ritucharya’ mentioned in Ayurveda means changing one’s lifestyle with the season. During the summer, it is recommended to drink fruit juices such as mango juice.
You will find the mention of similar fruit juices in the Old Testament of the Bible. If grape juice is left untouched for a long time, it ferments and turns into wine. In the Old Testament, we see wine and grape juice mentioned separately. In Chapter 6, verses 2-3, God tells Prophet Moses that if any man or woman from Israel wants to make a Nazirite vow, i.e., to dedicate themselves to God for a while, they should not drink wine, in fact, any fermented drink. Even vinegar made of wine, grape juices, not even grapes and raisins. Wine, vinegar, and grape juice had distinct Hebrew names: Yayin, Chomets, and Mishrah.
Around the Dead Sea near Jordan, ancient manuscripts written in Hebrew were discovered. Dating them revealed that they were written in 150 BC. Those contained mentions of pomegranate juice.
Interestingly, friends, the history of fruit juice is somewhat similar to the history of ice cream. We have enough archaeological evidence to suggest that people from ancient China, Iran, Rome, Greece, and Egypt often sweetened ice or snow using honey or fruit juices. Alexander the Great is said to have been addicted to such ice creams. But during these times, fruit juices meant fresh fruit juices.
Fast forwarding to around the 1750s, the first case of preserving fruit juices took place. Friends, the English sailors of this time, who undertook long voyages, were often faced with a disease known as Scurvy. Scurvy is caused by a Vitamin C deficiency. This was around 180 years before the discovery of Vitamin C. But Dr James Lind’s experiments found that Scurvy can be prevented by having oranges and lemons. So the royal navy of England mandated that the sailors be provided with lime juice and lemon juice. But the problem was preserving the juices. They were spoilt during the months-long voyages.
Someone noticed that the fruit juices could be preserved by adding rum, water, and sugar to it. Friends, this combination, of fruit juice, rum, water, and sugar, is a popular cocktail that you can find even today, known as Daiquiri.
Later, in 1867, a man named Lochlan Rose realized that to preserve the fruit juice rum and water weren’t actually needed. Sugar alone could do it well. Friends, this was the discovery of the world’s first commercial fruit concentrate. Fruit juice being preserved by adding sugar. The first branded bottled juice was sold soon after. Lochlon Rose set up his factory and produced the Rose Lime Juice for the sailors on ships. It was bottled and labelled attractively, as medicine for the sailors.
From Welch’s Grape Juice to Pasteurization
Around this time, there was another man in America, Thomas Welch, a preacher at church. Unlike Muslims, Christians, and Jews do not consider drinking wine sinful. In fact, bread and wine are part of their rituals. But Thomas Welch began an alternative movement. He told his flock that they should stop drinking alcohol, alcohol consumption is harmful to health.
In a latest research, it was shown that even small quantities of alcohol are not beneficial to one’s health. Many countries had issued guidelines earlier that drinking a glass of wine daily is good for health. But many of these countries have updated their guidelines.
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Getting back to Thomas Welch, Thomas told the Christians to stop drinking wine and replace it with his unfermented wine, basically, grape juice. Several churches agreed with Thomas, and a Non-Alcoholic Community of Christians was formed.
In fact, even outside the Christian community, some Americans were greatly enjoying grape juice. This is why, the place where Thomas Welch lived, Westfield, is now known as the Grape Juice Capital of the world. The American fruit juice industry started from here.
Thomas Welch started using a new method of preserving the fruit juices longer. This new method was pasteurization, you’ve studied about it in school. We pasteurise milk as well. It basically means using heat to kill bacteria and viruses. Apart from grape juice, orange juice was pasteurised as well. Farmers growing oranges saw that if the supply was too high without sufficient space for storing them, they could simply make juice out of the excess oranges, and pasteurize it in order to be able to store it for a long time.
At this point in time, the packaged fruit juice business was doing better than the fresh fruit juice business.
The Rise of Juicers and the Tetra Pack Revolution
And then, came an invention in our story that promoted fresh fruit juices. Raw foods advocate, Norman Walker, invented the first juicer. For the first time, a machine was created to first grate fruits and vegetables, squeeze them, with fresh fruit juice being poured out. This was the early 1900s. Norman went to California and started his juice bar. All his life he promoted raw fresh foods and fresh juices. He wrote 12 books and lived until 99 years of age. It is important to mention this, because back then, such a long life wasn’t common. And perhaps, his healthy lifestyle can be credited for it.
Moving on, in the late 1950s, the first grinding juicer was invented, known as the Champion Juicer. After which came the centrifugal juicers. After these inventions, the machines for extracting fruit juices became even more compact, convenient, and mobile. It meant that people could buy these machines for their homes.
The efficiency of cold-pressed juicers and centrifugal juicers is often debated, since centrifugal juicers do not extract juice quite as well. Due to the heat and oxidation, the enzymes and nutrients of the fruits decrease. There’s no scientific evidence proving this, because the temperature in centrifugal juicers doesn’t get that high. Research tells us that nutritionally, the juices from the cold-pressed juicers and centrifugal juicers are almost similar. Because ultimately, both produce fresh fruit juice.
The turning point in the story of packaged juices came in 1963 when a Swedish company, Tetra Pak, introduced their tetra brick packet. That’s right, friends, the name of the company was Tetra Pak. Today, we refer to this type of packet as Tetra Packs. Tetra Pak is so popular worldwide. The owner of this company was a Swedish industrialist, Ruben Rausing. The history of fruit juices changed forever with this. Not only was it possible to store fruit juices for months, it could now be transported to far-flung areas, and in such a convenient package. It could be sold in a way that people could drink directly from the pack with a straw. Such a convenient and inexpensive process, that we are still using Tetra Packs.
The Truth Behind Packaged Fruit Juices: Concentrates, Flavors, and Sugar
But what kind of juice do we find in these tetra packs today? Come, let’s look at a typical popular brand sold in India, and let’s understand the ingredient list printed on its back.
Several nutrients have been listed here. The second column is for the nutritional value of per 100 ml of juice. And the third column is for the percentage of RDA, Recommended Dietery Allowance. It means than an average person gets this % of their RDA from this. It contains 28mg of sodium. In a serving of 180ml, that forms 2.5% of a person’s daily requirement. Basically, nothing. No one is out there drinking 50 packets of this every day in order to meet the total daily requirement. The same can be said for Potassium, Calcium, and Iron: 1.7%, 1.5%, and 1% respectively. Insignificant.
There’s only a significant amount of Vitamin C, with meeting 75% of the recommended daily allowance. You will think at least there’s one good thing, you will fulfill the daily requirement of Vitamin C by drinking this juice. Though it is correct, it is to be noted that Vitamin C is already found abundantly in nature.
If your child drinks 1 glass of lemonade, with the juice of 1 lemon, it will meet 100% of the recommended daily allowance. If not that, half an orange is enough to meet 100% of the daily requirement. And only 1/10th of an Indian gooseberry (amla) can meet 100% of the RDA.
And friends, we are not living in the 1700s, we are not sailors travelling for months on ships, where, by not meeting our Vitamin C requirements, we risk getting Scurvy. Today, fulfilling the Vitamin C requirement is the easiest thing. So, we do not need this juice from the Tetra Pack for this.
So the claims made in ads of these fruit juices helping with the child’s nutrition are gross exaggerations. Apart from Vitamin C, no other nutrient is present in significant quantities.
Now, let’s check the ingredient list at the back. The first thing you’ll spot here is Water, followed by about 10% of concentrated fruit juice. What falsehoods are these? Only 10% of it is juice, and the rest is water. How can this be? For this, we need to understand what concentrated fruit juice is. Also known as Fruit Juice Concentrate, friends, this is the liquid that is left behind when you separate water from the juice.
To make fruit juice concentrate, often these companies heat up the fresh fruit juice. Water evaporates from the juice, and the residue is the concentrated form of the juice. This liquid is quite tense and is like syrup. This isn’t the only way of making concentrates. Today, there are many methods of doing this. Some use evaporation, others pasteurize fruit juices, and some simply filter it. But the end result of fruit juice concentrate looks like this, a thick syrup-like liquid.
Depending upon the method used to make this concentrate, often, the flavour of this concentrate gets diluted. It doesn’t taste as fruity. So the companies add artificial flavours to it so that it tastes like the fruits once again.
These fruit juice concentrates are then mixed with water to make these packaged fruit juices. You will wonder why it needs to be this complicated, first water is removed by evaporation, and then added to water to make the fruit juice. Why do they do this?
Friends, this is because this concentrate can be stored longer. This doesn’t go bad as quickly as fresh juices do. So the companies can save on packaging costs, storage costs, and transportation costs.
But on the other hand, the drawback of these concentrates is that it lacks most of the nutrients. Think about it: you extracted fresh juice, made a concentrate by evaporation or pasteurisation, you heat up the fresh juice, and then you want to store it for months, how will it remain wholesome?
This is why, further in the ingredients list, you will notice the disclaimer at the last point that flavours have been added. Natural and Nature-Identical Flavouring Substances. Some natural flavours have been added so that it tastes like fruit juice, and some nature-identical flavouring substances, chemicals that taste similar to natural substances.
After so much processing, often the colour gets distorted, the actual colour of the juice. The companies want their products to be the same colour as fresh juices, so colours are added to it too. In this case, INS 160a(ii) and (iii), the colour known as Beta-Carotenes.
The other ingredients included the acidity regulator INS 330, Stabilizers 466 and 440, 440 is basically Pectin, a natural polysaccharide. Usually, the citric acid they add to the juice to enhance the taste of the juice.
And then comes the final and perhaps the most harmful ingredient in the lot, Sugar.
The Shocking Truth About Sugar Content
How much sugar does it contain? 13.5g per 100 ml. Friends, do you know what’s shocking? If you remember my video on cold drinks, at the beginning of that video, I had mentioned the approximate sugar content in cold drinks. If you recall, it was 10g-13g per 100 ml. The sugar content is almost similar in fruit juice and soft drink.
Friends, this is the biggest reason why at the beginning of this video, I told you that drinking packaged fruit juices regularly increases the risk of Type 2 Diabetes. The companies are directly blamed for this, because the amount of added sugar is about 7.5 g per 100 ml out of the total 13.5 g. These companies add extra sugar to their products. The natural sugar content is 13.5g minus 7g, only 6g per 100 ml.
As I told you in the video on cold drinks, the American Heart Association claims that our body does not need any added sugar. But if you still insist, on consuming added sugar, they claim that children between the ages of 7-10 years old should have a maximum of 24g of sugar in a day. And if a child drinks this packaged fruit juice, since this is a pack of 180 ml, the amount of added sugar in it is 13.32 g, more than half of the daily sugar consumption of a child is present in 1 packet of such fruit juices. If you consume 1 such packet every day, you shouldn’t be surprised if you test positive for diabetes later. Don’t delude yourself into thinking that you have opted for healthy diets and healthy juices all your life.
The Angelina Lewis Case and the Deception of Advertisements
Here, I’m not accusing any particular fruit juice company, because all of them are the same. Take an example of this fruit juice from another company, you won’t find significant differences. Similar calorie content, similar added sugar, if you look at the ingredient list, some contain stabilizers, some even contain Sweetener 960a. Overall, these fruit juices are neither natural nor healthy, even though their ads tell you otherwise.
What I have been trying to tell you, was taken up by Angelina Lewis, in front of a court in the US in 2011. In California, this young woman filed a case against Tropicana for Deceptive Advertisement. She claimed that in the ads, the company shows an orange with a straw in it, hinting that the juice they’re selling is 100% fresh, natural orange juice, directly from oranges. But the reality wasn’t so. Instead, this product was scientifically engineered and manufactured in laboratories, which is why you can store it for more than 2 months.
There was a long battle in the court about this. It took 7 years, but in the end, Angelina lost this case on technical grounds. Perhaps the same would happen if, in India, we tried to file a case against them on grounds of deceptive TV ads. They’ll come up with some technical loophole and you’d lose the case.
Fresh Fruit Juice vs. Packaged Fruit Juice: The Verdict
Even if the courts encounter some technical problems while giving judgements, I have no technical problem with giving my judgement. It is very clear that fresh fruit juice is exponentially better than packaged fruit juices. There’s so much difference that you shouldn’t even consider drinking packaged fruit juices. Especially, children should not be given these, because the sugar quantity is so high that it is basically the same as drinking soft drinks.
Coming to fresh fruit juices, the judgement is clear for it. Eating fresh fruit is better than drinking fresh juice. You’d wonder why?
Because in the process of juicing, the fiber content of the fruit is drastically reduced. Your body needs fiber, fiber is an important nutrient that you won’t find in juices. It’s in the fruit only.
The second reason is that juice is fluid and the fruit is solid. Juice is absorbed much faster in your body. Faster absorption means the changes in blood sugar are rapid. Your insulin levels fluctuate rapidly. In the short-term, if you have it once or twice, it won’t cause harm, but in the long term, if it happens repeatedly over years, this can cause problems with blood sugar.
The Importance of Moderation and Healthier Alternatives
There’s a simple technique to avoid this. Whenever you drink fresh fruit juice, don’t have it on an empty stomach. Drink fresh fruit juice either while eating, or after eating when you’re still partially full. This will prevent any spikes in your blood sugar levels, because the fruit juice would be digested slowly with the food you’ve eaten, keeping the sugar levels in control.
Of course, another thing that you need to remember is that moderation is the key. Fresh fruit juice is good for your health, but that doesn’t give you leave to drink 2-3 liters daily. Fruits contain natural sugar too, and the calories are concentrated in the juice as compared to fruits. Drinking too much of it can also lead to weight gain.
What’s the safe level of consumption? In an average adult and children over the age of 7, they can safely drink 8 ounces of fruit juice per day, that’s around 237 ml. So basically, 1 glass of fresh fruit juice a day is beneficial for you.
Another healthier substitute for fresh juice is smoothies. While making smoothies, you normally use a blender and you directly add the fruits. So you don’t lose the fiber content of the fruit. You can blend it with other nuts, seeds, and vegetables, or some flour as well, for an even healthier smoothie.
Conclusion and Call to Action
I hope this was an informative video. Share it with your friends and family, so that this information reaches everyone.
On which topic should the next video of this series be? Comment below to tell me.
The link to sign up for the ChatGPT Course is in the description below. And the coupon code is R41.
If you haven’t watched the previous videos of this series, you can watch them by clicking here, they’re on bread and soft drinks.
Thank you very much!
Keywords: Fruit juice, packaged fruit juice, health, sugar, diabetes, nutrition, fresh fruit juice, smoothies, healthy alternatives, Dhruv Rathee, ChatGPT, AI, court case, deceptive advertising,
