Choose juice with few added ingredients, natural sugars, and nutrients. Vegetable juice may be a better option than fruit juice due to lower sugar and more nutrients. Look for short ingredient lists with no added sweeteners or chemicals. Dilute sugary fruit juice with water to lower calories.
Many people strive to lose weight and feel healthier by choosing smarter juice drinks, but fall into the trap of choosing sugary drinks disguised as healthy options. In general, the healthiest juice has the fewest added ingredients and is therefore as close to the natural fruit or vegetable as possible. Depending on your goals, vegetable juice may be a better option than fruit juice.
The best healthy juice should contain many nutrients, including vitamins and antioxidants, that benefit the body in some way. These juices can be from fruits, vegetables, or both. Many healthy juice brands include juice from multiple fruits and vegetables to provide a wide range of nutrients. Often, healthy juices contain expensive or unusual fruit or vegetable juice, such as acai or prickly pears, which offer an even wider range of flavors and nutrients outside of standard juices. Many popular juices are made from “superfoods” or “super fruits,” which may have some additional nutritional or antioxidant benefits compared to regular fruits.
When looking for healthy juice options, look for drinks that contain only the natural sugars from the fruits or vegetables from which the juice was made. Added sugar can increase the flavor of the juice, but it will make it much less healthy and will likely increase the number of calories as well, often beyond sugary snacks and sweets. Note that the ingredient list may not directly list “sugar” as an added ingredient, but may instead list corn syrups or artificial sweeteners. Also, if the expiration date is months in the future, it’s a sign that the juice may contain a significant amount of preservatives. Look for a short ingredient list with no added sweeteners or chemicals, either as flavoring or preservatives.
If you’re deciding between fruit juice and vegetable juice, you should keep in mind that juice made from vegetables is likely to be lower in sugar than fruit juice, and may also contain more nutrients. Tomato, beet, and carrot juices are popular healthy juice choices, but some people find the taste off-putting and prefer to stick with juice made from fruit or a mixture of fruits and vegetables. If for taste reasons you prefer the more sugary fruit options, you can lower the calories and sugar per serving by diluting your juice with a little cold water.
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