Eating fresh fruit vs drinking fruit juice, which is healthier?

There is no doubt that you will get a lot of benefits if you regularly eat fruit. But today more people prefer to drink juice than eat fruit. Either because it's practical, it's not a hassle, and of course you can get fruit juice anywhere. But is it true that drinking fruit juice is good? Which is healthier drinking juice or eating fresh fruit straight away?

Drinking fruit juice is healthier than eating fresh fruit, is it true?

Fruit juice is very practical, can be drunk anywhere and even not difficult to get. In addition, many people prefer to drink juice because it tastes sweet and has the same content as the real fruit. But did you know that the fruit juices you drink are not as healthy as you think? Here are the reasons why you should choose to eat fresh fruit over drinking fruit juice.

The taste of fruit juice is like the real fruit, but it can be made from artificial flavors

Almost all fruit juice products that are sold in supermarkets, state that the fruit juice product is a natural extract obtained from fruit, not just additional food flavorings.

Yes, it does contain real fruit extracts in packaged juice, but the question is how much does the extract contain? And it turns out that most of them do not contain 100% natural extracts, all are added with additives to enhance the taste of fruit juices.

Not only that, the additives in bottled juices are still more numerous and varied, such as preservatives. According to various studies, consuming foods or drinks that contain additives too often has a higher risk of developing coronary heart disease, cancer and other degenerative diseases.

Fruit juices contain little fiber, but lots of sugar

One of the reasons why you should eat fruit is because fruit contains lots of fiber which is good for health, especially digestive health. However, if you replace fresh fruit with packaged fruit juice, you will not get as much fiber as you find in fresh fruit.

The biggest substance you can get from drinking packaged fruit juice is sugar, because about 350 ml of apple juice alone has 165 calories and 39 grams of calories - the equivalent of approximately 10 teaspoons. In fact, the recommended use of sugar in a day is only up to 6 teaspoons. So, it's no wonder drinking fruit juice will only make your health condition worse and increase the risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus.

This has even been proven in a study conducted by researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health. In that study, it was found that people who prefer to drink juice rather than eat real fruit have an increased risk of developing diabetes. Meanwhile, the habit of eating fresh fruit actually reduces the risk of type 2 diabetes.

Then is homemade juice healthier when compared to eating fruit?

Still, it's still better to eat the fruit straight away than by drinking fruit juice, even if the fruit juices you make yourself use fresh fruit sources and without any sugar. Why so?

The answer is because if you eat fruit, you are required to chew all the pieces of fruit. by chewing the fruit slowly, the nutrients, including the sugar contained in the fruit, will be digested and broken down gradually. The breakdown of sugar occurs first in the mouth, then in the stomach, and ends at absorption in the small intestine. This makes the sugar absorbed longer and does not turn into blood sugar as quickly.

Meanwhile, if you drink fruit juice, all the nutrients will easily enter the digestive system and be absorbed by the body more quickly. This condition makes blood sugar rise and change very quickly. Blood sugar that often rises can make your fat levels also increase, this of course can lead to heart disease, diabetes, and other degenerative diseases.