5. Fruit juice
Who doesn’t love coffee and orange juice with their breakfast? As a small addition to an otherwise balanced breakfast, there’s nothing inherently wrong with a small (around 150ml) glass of fresh juice. The problems start if you’re drinking much more than this every day.
If you think about oranges, how many could you eat in one go? One or two is our guess. But if you have a large glass of freshly squeezed (either by yourself or a shop bought fresh orange) juice, you could be consuming double that.
Oranges are healthy, as are any other fruits used to make juices. They contain high levels of vitamin C and other vitamins and minerals. But fruit also contains fructose, a fruit sugar. So if you’re consuming one or two oranges, then you’re not consuming much fructose. But take that to four or more oranges in one sitting, just as a drink, then you’re consuming more sugar than you think. So if we drink a fruit juice alone for breakfast, we’re likely to feel hungry pretty soon afterwards.
Fruit juices also remove the fibre content from the fruit, since you’re not consuming the pulp. Fibre is important for good gut health. So consume whole fruits and keep juices to a minimum. And definitely opt out of fruit juices with added sugars!