Its a common situation. You claim you’re having a dry night but end up at some chai dhabba with your friends. They are drinking frizzy drinks most of the time and to reward yourself, you order a fresh lime, or other frizzy drinks one after another and another and another you are being so healthy after all.
But is soft drink really a healthier choice?
The short answer: “Definitely not,”. Soft drink has no positive nutritional properties, is bad for the teeth, glucose levels and is easily over consumed. With more awareness about the very strong correlation between guzzling sweet, fizzy drinks, and obesity and tooth decay, sales of beverages like Coca-Cola and Pepsi have slumped.
When it comes to choosing between sodas and juices in the beverage aisle, the juice industry has long benefited from a health halo.
We know that juice comes from fruit, while soda is artificial. In particular, the sugars in juice seem more “natural” than high fructose corn syrup — the main sweetener in so many sodas. After all, we’ve gotten rid of most of the soda we used to offer kids at school, but we still serve them lots of juice.
But a study shows that on average, fruit juice has a fructose concentration of about 45.5 grams per liter, only a bit less than the average of 50 grams per liter for sodas. The sneakiest — and sweetest — juice is Minute Maid 100 percent apple, with nearly 66 grams of fructose per liter. That’s more than the 62.5 grams per liter in Coca-Cola. You might think fruit juice is inherently healthier than soda because it comes from fruit. But that’s not always the case.
I asked nutrition researchers this question, and they all pointed out that the sugar in fruit juice is more concentrated than it is in whole fruits. When you drink fruit juice, you get a mega dose of sugar the same way you do when you drink soda.
Juices have some nutritional value when the sugars are not added. But people don’t drink all that much [natural fruit] juice — it’s too expensive. They drink juice drinks with added sugars.These juices drinks — like bottled cranberry or grape juices — are basically sugar water with artificial flavors and little nutritional benefit. And even pure fruit juices that deliver vitamins and nutrients — like freshly squeezed orange juice — also deliver a lot of calories and sugar.
That said, nutritionists aren’t arguing you have to avoid fruit juice entirely. Real fruit juices are nutritionally superior to sodas and can be part of a healthy diet. Juices, like any other source of liquid sugars, are best consumed in small amounts.”
So with this being said I concluded that whether it’s a fizzy drink or a tetra pack juice or a bottled one there is no winner. Instead of relying on processed product we should go for natural homemade fresh juice instead in order to avoid health issues.