Are fresh juice drinks as healthy as they seem?

On these midsummer days, it’s hard to walk down the street without passing someone sipping a vividly colored beverage. According to food industry statistics, these folks aren’t likely to be drinking McDonald’s Shamrock Shakes or 7-Eleven Slurpees. Instead, people are shifting from sugary beverages with artificial ingredients to cold-pressed juices and smoothies. Sales of juice extractors and blenders lead the small-appliance market, and juice bars continue to spring up on city streets, in shopping malls, and even in supermarkets. There are a couple of reasons people are taking to these beverages, says Kathy McManus, director of the Department of Nutrition at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women’s Hospital. “They think they are doing something healthy, and the beverages can be time savers. It can be faster to grab a smoothie in the morning instead of sitting down to breakfast.” What is cold-pressed juice? Cold pressing employs the same principle as the hand-crank citrus juicer your mother or grandmother might have used: the fruits or vegetables are squeezed between two metal plates to extract the juice. Modern juice extractors may chop or grind the produce before applying hydraulic pressure to separate the juice from the pulp. The upsides: Because cold-pressed juices are usually served fresh, they retain more of a fruit’s or vegetable’s vitamins and minerals. They don’t have the added sugars or artificial sweeteners that most bottled juices contain. Addition...
Source: New Harvard Health Information - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Diet and Weight Loss Health Healthy Eating Source Type: news