Fruit Juice

by Susan R. Johnson MD, FAAP, Raphael House

I knew that drinking lots of apple juice wasn't good for toddlers because they often filled up on juice, and they wouldn't be hungry for meals, thereby missing vital food substances (proteins, fats, vitamins, minerals, etc). What I didn't realize was that drinking juice was like drinking concentrated sugar and could potentially deplete the body of valuable vitamins and minerals in a manner similar to eating lots of candy or drinking lots of soda.

For example, when a child eats an orange, it does so slowly, and receives minerals and vitamins within the orange itself that help it process the sugar. The body requires B vitamins (thiamine, folic acid, B12) and trace elements like zinc, chromium, and magnesium as well as several enzymes to process and store the sugar we eat. When a child consumes a large glass of orange juice, it is like eating five or six oranges in 30 seconds, and because most juices are pasteurized, vitamins and other nutrients are inactivated by the high temperatures. In addition, the large amount of sugar presented quickly to the body causes too much insulin to be released from the pancreas. This over-release of insulin causes the blood sugar to drop. The brain, now faced with an unstable supply of sugar, preferentially closes down the higher learning centers (memory, thoughts, social behaviors etc.), and instead stimulates the more primitive emotional and motor centers of the brain to deal with this perceived "crisis" (resulting in an overactive child that is emotionally "out of control").