Fruit juice that are sold as “100% fresh fruit juice” is actually just as unhealthy as a sugary drink. Excessive sugar consumption may lead to not only obesity and tooth cavities, but also increase our blood glucose level and disrupt our metabolism. Drinking one bottle of juice (200ml) already exceeds the recommended amount of daily sugar intake.
A research team in University of Waterloo recently presented results that if a 20% tax applies to all soft drinks, 13,000 lives can be saved for 25 years and obesity or other serious disorders could be prevented among thousands of people. Imposing tax to not only soda or energy drinks but also to “100% fruit juices” can considerably decrease death and disability care costs.
Professor David Hammond, who led the research team, stated, “Soft drinks actually have a severe impact on our health. Tax imposition can be a good solution to prevent Type II Diabetes caused by excessive calorie intake.” The research team’s insistence on tax imposition shows how severe sugar intake is to our health. The reason that the research team included fruit juice is because most fruit juices that are said to be sugar-free actually contain “flavor packs” or liquid syrup to bring back the fruit flavor. This basically makes fruit juice a fruit flavored sugar water, and can cause heart diseases or diabetes.
Liquid syrups are affordable yet very sweet so they are used instead of sugar to make flavor in soft drinks or any other kinds of food. They are the main cause for obesity. Thus it is best to check for not only the amount of sugar but also the amount of “flavor packs” used when choosing a drink.
Original article available on http://www.koreadaily.com/news/read.asp?art_id=5146432
Translated by Ellen Kim
