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100% Fruit Juice Doesn’t Make Kids Fat

As the epidemic of obesity and being overweight in general increases in the United States, studies have become numerous to determine which foods and which styles of diet are the most detrimental.  Some studies have implicated a diet containing fruit juice as a factor in excessive weight but others have not drawn the same conclusion.

A new report using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) says drinking 100% juice doesn’t add more pounds and is actually associated with a diet higher in nutrients of all kinds.  The study, led by Theresa A. Nicklas, Dr. P.H., of Houston’s Baylor College of Medicine, used the 1999-2002 data from the NHANES survey to analyze the dietary habits of 3,618 children who were between the ages of 2 and 11 at the time of survey.  Data was collected during interviews in the children’s homes, where they were weighed, measured, and their consumption of foods and beverages was noted.

According to the Baylor study, children drank an average of 4.1 fluid ounces of juice each day, which amounts to about 58 calories.  The children who drank juice also had a tendency to eat more whole fruits than the children who didn’t drink juice.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends 4 to 6 ounces per day for children aged 1 to 6 years old and twice that for children aged 7 to 18.  The children in the survey who drank the most juice, an average of 6 ounces of juice per day, were 2 and 3 years old.

Drinking 100% juice was not found to be a link to obesity or excess weight during childhood.  The research team suggests accessibility to fruits and vegetables, parenting style, and other factors that influence a child’s diet may determine how much, if any, juice a child consumes, as well as the details of his or her diet in general.

The Juice Products Association, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Hatch Projects and Agricultural Research Service provided support for this study.  Full details of the study have been published in the June 4 issue of JAMA and Archives Journals.

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