There was a reason our mothers insisted that we drink fresh fruit juices instead of soft drinks with our meals. Fruits contain a rainbow of vitamins that are essential for our physical and mental well-being. Fruits are not just delicious, but they also come with a whole of beneficial fibre as well as minerals that play big and small roles in the smooth functioning of our bodies. A new study has now said that juice can improve the overall diet quality of kids. The study said that the skepticism about fruit juices needs to be done away with as they are in fact, good for kids, given that they are a 100 per cent organic and do not contain added flavours.
The study titled, "100% Fruit Juice in Child and Adolescent Dietary Patterns" was published in the 'Journal of The American College Of Nutrition' in its July issue. The study report said that although juices lack fibre, they retain most of their health-promoting nutrients and bioactive compounds, as well as phytochemicals from the whole fruits. The report also noted that those who drank fruit juice had better quality of diet, which had less added sugar and saturated fat and more amounts of magnesium, potassium, vitamin C and even fibre, as compared to the diets of those who didn't drink fruit juices. Dr Murray, paediatric nutritionist president of the Ohio Chapter of the American Academy of Paediatrics said, "Drinking 100% fruit juice has many positive attributes that improve overall diet quality."
"When juice is eliminated from a child's diet, it can have unintended negative nutritional consequences, especially for low-income populations", he added. He also said that juice has recently started getting a bad rapport but that there was no scientific evidence to support these claims. "This report encourages parents and other consumers to look at a child's total diet before judging foods or beverages "good" or "bad." Foods should be judged not on individual attributes such as fat or sugar but on their contributions to the diet as a whole", he said.
"Over the past three decades, fruit juice consumption has fallen substantially yet the gap has not been filled by the consumption of whole fruit. A combination of whole fruit and juice is the best way for children and adults to meet their daily-recommended fruit servings and improve their overall diet," said Dr. Murray. "Young children are typically the biggest juice drinkers. They are also the only age group in the United States consuming enough servings of fruit."
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