Think You're Getting Enough Fruit? Your Heart Health May Tell A Different Story
While that glass of fruit juice tastes great and takes just second to pour it can't quite replicate biting into the real thing. Whole fruit comes with fiber that much of the juicing process removes, and that nutrient plays an important role in heart health.
A new analysis of more than 371,000 U.S. adults looked at how whole fruit and juice habits differed among people with and without cardiovascular risk factors, offering another reason to give the fruit bowl some love.
About the study
Researchers wanted to find out whether people with cardiovascular disease (CVD) or related risk factors had different fruit-eating habits than those without them.
To investigate, they analyzed survey data from 371,038 U.S. adults collected in 2019. Participants reported how often they ate whole fruit and drank 100% fruit juice.
They also shared whether a health professional had ever diagnosed them with high blood pressure, high cholesterol, a heart attack, angina or coronary heart disease (CHD), or a stroke.
The researchers compared fruit and juice intake among people with and without each condition, while accounting for differences in age, education, income, and smoking habits.
People with heart health risks ate whole fruit less often
Adults with high blood pressure, high cholesterol, a history of heart attack, or CHD reported eating whole fruit less often than those without these conditions.
These differences remained even after researchers accounted for age, education, income, and smoking. The same pattern appeared among people with a history of stroke, although it didn't hold up after those adjustments.
Fruit juice was a different story.
People with high blood pressure, a history of heart attack, CHD, or stroke initially reported drinking it more often. But after researchers accounted for other factors, only two associations remained.
Adults who had experienced a heart attack drank juice more frequently, while those with high cholesterol drank it less often.
Overall, people didn't drink 100% fruit juice particularly often, averaging about once every three days.
RELATED READ: A Cheat Sheet For Eating 30+ Grams Of Fiber Every Day
Why whole fruit has an edge over juice
The biggest nutritional difference between whole fruit and juice is fiber. Juicing removes much of it, which means you get considerably less in your glass than you would from eating the fruit itself.
For example, a cup of orange juice contains just 0.5 grams (0.02 ounces) of fiber, compared with 3.6 grams (0.13 ounces) in a cup of orange segments, according to USDA data cited by the researchers.
That's a significant difference, especially since fiber is well established to help lower cardiovascular disease risk. Most Americans also fall short of recommended fiber intake.
The researchers suggest that this gap could help explain the different patterns they observed. However, the study can't establish cause and effect.
Because participants reported their diets and health conditions at one point in time, researchers couldn't determine whether eating less whole fruit contributed to heart problems or whether people changed their diets after a diagnosis.
Making whole fruit an everyday habit
You don't have to swear off your morning juice, but choosing whole fruit more often is an easy way to get more fiber into your day.
- Keep fruit within reach: Stock up on apples, oranges, bananas, or berries so you have an easy snack ready when hunger strikes.
- Give breakfast a fruit boost: Add berries to yogurt, slice a banana over oatmeal, or toss some fruit into a smoothie (keeping the whole fruit rather than straining it).
- Make whole fruit your first choice: When you're deciding between an orange and orange juice, reach for the orange more often. You'll get considerably more fiber in the process.
The takeaway
Juice can still have a place in a balanced diet, but it shouldn't be your only source of fruit. If heart health is on your radar, make room for the whole thing. Your fiber intake will thank you!
