It doesn’t necessarily have to be the burger or the chocolate. The calorie devil sometimes lurks exactly where you don’t expect it.
Kassel – If you want to lose weight, you often adopt healthier behavior to the best of your knowledge and belief. These usually include: reducing meals, (re)starting sporting activities and avoiding fat and sugar. But what if there are no successes to be seen on the scales? A supposedly healthy habit could be the reason.
According to old nutritional wisdom, five a day means five servings of fruit and vegetables a day. These should provide the body with sufficient vitamins, minerals and fiber. But in addition, the intake of fruit and fruit juices should be limited in any case, reports the Consumer Center. As healthy as fruit and vegetables are, the fruit sugar (fructose) they contain is just that: sugar.
Lose weight healthy: calorie trap fruit and juices
Fructose often has a positive image among consumers because it occurs naturally in fruit. And manufacturers take advantage of this with fruit juices in particular. A drink with a very high sugar content can therefore be hidden behind phrases such as “natural sweetness”, “fruit sweetness” or “no added sugar”. Even with freshly squeezed juice, which is made 100 percent from the fruit, the sugar content is usually the same as that of lemonades, reports the nutritionist Astrid Tombek, head of the diabetes and nutritional advice department at the Diabetes Center Mergentheim, to the Pharmacy magazine.
The exact product name gives consumers little information about the sugar content of the drink, but only information about the fruit content:
| Direct juice: | Consists of 100 percent fruit. The natural sugar content depends on the fruit and can be very high. |
| fruit nectar: | Contains between 25 and 50 percent fruit, plus water and added sugars. Up to 20 percent sugar content allowed. |
| fruit juice spritzer: | Between 25 percent and 50 percent fruit content. Sugar content depends on the natural sweetness of the fruit. |
| Fruit juice from concentrate: | The fruit content is 100 percent, with water being removed in the meantime and then added again. Sugar content depends on the natural sweetness of the fruit. |
| fruit juice drink: | Fruit juice drinks consist primarily of water, sugar and flavorings. The average sugar content is 12 percent, but varies greatly depending on the product. |
| Source: Astrid Tombek, Apotheken-Umschau |
According to nutritionist Tombek, a fresh glass of orange juice usually requires at least three oranges, depending on the variety. All the sugar from the fruit gets into the blood particularly quickly in liquid form. Because fruit sugar (fructose) can only be processed in the human body by the liver. “If we eat too many calories, the liver converts excess fructose into fat and stores it,” says Tombek. This promotes the development of fatty liver. It is better to only drink heavily diluted juices and then to keep an eye on the amount.
Lose weight: Live healthier without juices
The Nutrition Commission of the German Society for Child and Adolescent Medicine (DGKJ) also sees fruit juice as a calorie trap, since juice is often drunk on the side. In this way, the body is supplied with additional energy that does not cause a feeling of satiety and is therefore not perceived as food intake at all.
studies have shown a clear connection between the consumption of sugary drinks – including fruit juices – and the development of obesity, according to the DGKJ. In 2019, researchers even found evidence of an increase of up to 18 percent increased risk of cancer with regular consumption of the sugar trap. If you want to lose weight, you should not only pay special attention to energy supply in liquid form for this reason.
Lose weight healthily: Juices are only well diluted to quench thirst
However, the supply of liquid should not suffer from this limitation. The German Society for Nutrition (DGE) therefore recommends unsweetened tea as a thirst quencher in addition to water. However, fruit juices and other sugary drinks such as lemonades, fizzy drinks, nectars, iced tea, mixed milk drinks and cola are unsuitable. With an average of about 100 g of sugar per liter, these would contain too many additional calories. In addition, when losing weight, you should pay attention to what you eat, especially in the evening.
Of course, it depends on how much sugar is in the rest of the food and drink. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), it should be no more than 50 grams a day – less would be better. However, the consumer advice center points out that soft drinks are not the only products where attention should be paid to the sugar content. This is also important for fruit yoghurts, cereals, muesli and biscuits. Parents in particular should therefore take a close look at the nutritional information when they reach for these classic children’s foods.
With five simple tricks, losing weight should already be easier.