Orange juice is as bad for you as Coca-Cola, the UK government's leading adviser on obesity has warned.
Professor Susan Jebb, speaking to The Sunday Times, said she had given up orange juice and urged others to 'wean' themselves off it or dilute it.
Her view is that fruit juice should not be counted as one of the 5 A DAY portions of fruit and vegetables due to the drink's high sugar content.
Professor Jebb is in charge of the government’s responsibility deal, which involves a series of voluntary pledges by industry aimed at tackling health problems such as obesity and alcohol abuse.
She told The Sunday Times:“Fruit juice isn’t the same as intact fruit and it has got as much sugar as many classical sugar drinks. It is also absorbed very fast so by the time it gets to your stomach your body doesn’t know whether it’s Coca-Cola or orange juice, frankly.
'I have to say it is a relatively easy thing to give up. Swap it and have a piece of real fruit. If you are going to drink it, you should dilute it.”
Her words of warning come as a group of academics who came together to launch ‘Action on Sugar' urgedcompanies to stop advertising sugary drinks and snacks to children claiming sugar has become ‘the alcohol of childhood.’
