Smoothies and Fruit Juices are danger to health:US Scientists Warn

                   

        Smoothies and fruit juices are "the next step in the evolution of the battle" says Barry Popkin. Fruit Juices and smoothies represent a new risk to our health because of the amount of sugar the apparently healthy drinks contain, warn the US scientists who blew the whistle on corn syrup in soft drinks a decade ago. Barry Popkin and George Bray pointed the finger at high fructose corn syrup in soft drinks in 2004, causing a huge headache the big manufacturers, including Coca-Cola and Pepsi. "Smoothies and Fruit juice are the new danger," said Popkin, a distinguished professor at the department of nutrition at the University of North Carolina, in an interview with the Guardian.. Around the Globe, he added, "It's kind of the next step in the evolution of the battle. And it's a really big part of it because in every country they been replacing soft drinks with fruit juice and smoothies as the new healthy beverage. So you will find that Coke and Pepsi bought dozens of fruit juice companies.
             "Smoothies do not actually provide the same health benefits as simply eating a whole fruit or vegetable. "So pulped up smoothies do nothing good for us, but do give us the same amount of sugar as four to six oranges or a large coke. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that about half of the U.S population consumes at least one sugary drink per day on average. Those statistics are higher for lower income individuals, minors and minorities. The CDC also says the dramatic rise in soft drink consumption over the past 30 years has played a direct role in rising obesity rates and cases of diabetes. That a typical 20-ounce bottle of soda contains about 15-18 teaspoons of sugar. U.S. beverage manufacturers spend about $3.2 billin dollars each year marketing these drinks to children. The near omnipresence of sugary drinks is so prevalent that a June 2013 study from the National Institutes of Health claims that removing soda machines from schools would not have a significant impact on the number of drinks consumed by kids. "Smoothies are made entirely from fruit and therefore contain the same amount of sugars that you would find in an equivalent amount of whole fruit," reads a sstatement from fruit smoothie manufacturer Innocent, which is primarily owned by the /coca-Cola company. The fruit smoothie industry, Popkin has in the past praised companies like Coke for reducing the amount of sugar in the products offering lower sized portions options to the consumer.