You Ask, I Answer: Sugar/Fruit Juices

I was recently drinking some of Welch's "100% White Grape Juice" (from concentrate unfortunately) and it boldly states "No Sugar Added" on the bottle.

The nutrition facts label on the back states that there are 50g of sugar in the 10oz bottle!

They mention that it's all natural fruit sugars but I was wondering, does your body react to the sugar in this bottle of grape juice the same way it would in, say, a tall (12oz) Starbucks Vanilla Bean Frappuccino (44g sugar)?

Is the sugar in my "healthy" grape juice having the same effect on my body as the sugar in the Starbucks "treat"?

-- Andrew Carney
Spokane, WA

Our bodies react the same way to fructose (the sugar in fruit) and sucrose ("table sugar").

Why, then, you might be wondering, is a Starbucks frappuccino with whipped cream "bad" while a banana is "good"?

It really has to do with what those two options offer besides sugar.

In the frappuccino case, you are getting quite a bit of saturated fat from the whipped cream (half a day’s worth!) as well as a pretty significant amount of empty calories (324, to be exact).

The banana -- or any whole fruit for that matter -- provides fiber (which helps keep blood sugar levels steady), phytochemicals, vitamins, and minerals (one of them being potassium, which the US diet is rather low in).

It goes without saying that the Starbucks concoction offers a significantly higher amount of sugar than a fruit.

Fruit juices are tricky because the "no sugar added" marketing is very misleading.

As you know, fruits contain naturally-occurring fructose.

A juice made with juice concentrate (basically the result of fruit sugar being boiled down to a thicker consistency) doesn't have additional sucrose (table sugar), hence the "valid" claim that your grape juice has "no added sugar".

However, unlike with an actual piece of fruit, you aren't taking in fiber.

This means that a cup of juice raises your blood sugar at a faster level than a piece of fruit and doesn’t provide as many health benefits.

One way to get around that is by having your juice with a good source of fiber like almonds, whole grain crackers, whole wheat bread, or a food bar like Clif Nectar or Lara.

Keep in mind, though, that this results in you taking in more calories than if you just ate an actual fruit.

A cup of Welch's No Sugar Added grape juice and one ounce of almonds (about 21 of them) adds up to 324 calories and 3.3 grams of fiber.

A medium sized apple gives you that EXACT amount of fiber in a 78 calorie package.

This is why the term "all natural" should not be perceived as a synonym for "healthy or "nutritious".

As far I'm concerned, fruit juice is much closer to the "soda" end of the beverage spectrum than the "glass of water" end.