Drinking Fruit Juice Increases Heart Attack Risk

September 2nd, 2010 by Savvy Veg

The CARDIA study shows that all sugared drinks, including fruit juices, raise total cholesterol, the bad LDL cholesterol, triglycerides, and blood pressure (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, August 13,  2010).

People who drink fruit juice also have much larger waist circumferences. Abdominal obesity means that a person has high insulin levels and is at markedly increased risk for heart attacks and diabetes.

Taking sugar in drinks when you are not exercising increases risk for heart attacks, diabetes and premature death. Before food can pass from the stomach into the intestines, it must be converted to a liquid soup. No solid food passes into the intestines.

When solid food enters your stomach, the pyloric sphincter at the end of the stomach closes and the stomach continuously squeezes the food until it is turned into a liquid soup. This can take up to four hours which markedly delays the rise in blood sugar. Since fruit juice is already a liquid, it passes immediately into the bloodstream to cause a high rise in blood sugar.

Here’s how high rises in blood sugar cause heart disease:

When blood sugar levels rise too high, *your pancreas releases huge amounts of insulin which *converts sugar to triglycerides (high triglycerides), which clog up your bloodstream to increase risk for clots, so *you use up huge amounts of your good HDL cholesterol (low HDL cholesterol) in carrying triglycerides and your bad LDL cholesterol from your bloodstream into your liver.

*Low HDL (good) cholesterol causes heart attacks because HDL is not available to carry cholesterol and triglycerides from your bloodstream.  *High insulin levels constrict arteries to cause heart attacks.  High blood sugar levels cause sugar to stick to the surface membranes of cells to destroy them and cause all the horrible side effects of diabetes. *High triglycerides in your liver cause a fatty liver that can lead to diabetes.

Comment from Savvy Vegetarian:

So what’s a body to do if you’re not ’sposed to drink juice? More than that, what’s the OJ industry to do? I’m not too concerned about them. What Real People can do is to drink water or herbal tea instead of OJ, and eat fresh fruit – which is a whole food containing fiber and complex carbohydrates, which means that it will digest much more slowly, and even diabetics can eat it.

Nutrition profile for a whole fresh California Valencia orange: 59 calories, 14 grams carbohydrate, sugars – not even mentioned, 3 grams fiber, 1 gram protein, 0 cholesterol, 0 fat, Vit. A 6% Daily Value, Vit. C 98% DV, Calcium 5% DV, Iron 1% DV

Nutrition profile for 8 ounces of unsweetened OJ without pulp: 112 calories, 27 grams total carbohydrate, including 21 grams sugars, 0 grams fiber, 3 grams protein, 0 cholesterol, 0 fat, , Vit. A 5% Daily Value, Vit. C 161% DV, Calcium 2% DV, Iron 1% DV

You can see for yourself the value of eating the orange instead of drinking the juice!

From Dr. Gabe Mirkin’s Health & Fitness Ezine, 9.2.10

View the original article here