Dear Health Canada,
My kids and I have had a lot of free time on our hands recently. Summer holidays will do that to you when it’s slow mornings and even slower days, and that’s when we like to read and eat at the same time. It was one of those days when my younger one disappeared from the breakfast table searching for her favourite book, and my oldest started to read the side of the juice carton.
I am shocked! Did you know this, Health Canada?
Of course you did! This helpful tip isn’t a matter of false marketing by big bad corporations, it’s based on Canada’s Food Guide where it states that a 1/2 cup of juice is the same as a serving of fruit.
Drink juice and there’s no need to eat fruit?! Even my kids know that’s nonsense.
It boggles my mind that no one objected to this when the scientists, nutritionists and politicians were designing Canada’s Food Guide. At least some of you were parents I assume, and if there were doubts your kids would have told you.
Juice is NOT the same as fruit. My kids say it does not come from nature so it can’t be the same. Sounds simple enough but that’s not what Canada’s Food Guide states.
Independent research says that juice is infact a far less healthy option than a fresh piece of fruit. While regular boxed orange juice may contain the same number of calories as fresh oranges, it doesn’t have any of the fibre that will help one feel full. Drinking juice doesn’t give that feeling of satiety nor does it have any of the vitamins or the nutritional value that is naturally present in an orange.
This is serious because schools are teaching health and nutrition based on the recommendations in Canada’s Food Guide. Kids in my daughter’s Grade 5 class learnt in school this year that instead of eating fruit one can drink juice. And they laughed because 10 year olds know when adults are just making stuff up. Is that what happened here?
Menus in daycares and after-school programs are designed around Canada’s Food Guide. Did you know toddlers are drinking juice instead of eating fruit? These institutions are following recommendations laid in Canada’s Food Guide after all.
I don’t want my kids growing up thinking that calories is the only significant comparison in food. An orange is more than it’s juice even when the juicing is done at home. Science has proven again and again the value of fresh fruit. I know I’m repeating myself but this is important. Not only does the juicing process destroy a number of fruits’ beneficial compounds and antioxidants, it removes nearly all of the natural fibre.
All of the sugar with very little of the nutrition. No, thanks!
Health Canada, everybody makes mistakes and it’s time to correct this one.
Juice is not the same as fruit. I would like you to tell my kids that. They don’t believe me any more.
Sincerely and with hope,
Puneeta
