A few simple facts about fruit juice

To some people, drinking a glass of juice with breakfast can seem like a way to balance the scales. While fruit juice is sweet, delicious and, yes, nutritious, you're pouring a lot of calories into that glass.

Juice has some but not all of the nutritional benefits of whole fruit, and it has some drawbacks, too.

• There's no easier way to get one of your five daily servings of fruits and vegetables than gulping down a cool, refreshing glass of juice.
• No washing, no peeling and no tossing out rotten bananas that turned brown before you could eat them.
• No guilt, either, since Health Canada says you can count a glass of 100 percent fruit or vegetable juice as one serving.

Don't be fooled, however:  biting into a crisp apple or a tart wedge of grapefruit provides more nourishment than sipping their liquefied counterparts. That holds true even if you purchase juice labelled "all natural" or "100 percent fruit juice."

• One reason is simple:  produce is peeled and pulverized when it's processed into a beverage, which strips away important ingredients.
• For example, eating a large apple provides a heart-healthy five grams of dietary fibre for a mere 72 calories.
• Drinking 250 millilitres (one cup) of apple juice, on the other hand, provides just a trace of fibre but will set you back 117 calories.
• If you drink orange juice for your daily dose of vitamin C, you'd be better off eating an orange, which, calorie for calorie, provides about 60 percent more of this vital nutrient.
• Beware of sugar, too. A medium white grapefruit only has about 8.6 grams of sugar, but a cup of unsweetened grapefruit juice has 22.5 grams.
• Not surprisingly, drinking juice tends to raise blood sugar more than eating raw fruit.
• You don't need to swear off fruit juice, but choose wisely (look for 100 percent fruit juice with no sugar added) and watch portion size.
• Calorie for calorie, fruit is more nutritious than fruit juice.
• Consider the 69-calorie difference between an orange and a 125-millilitre (five-ounce) glass of orange juice with the equivalent number of calories.

Orange vs. orange juice:

• Vitamin C:  83 mg - 51 mg
• Fibre 3.1 g -  0.3 g
• Calcium 60 mg - 16 mg
• Folate 48 mcg - 28 mcg

It's pretty obvious that fruit is more healthy for you than fruit juice. For best results, be sure to eat lots of fruits and vegetables on a regular basis and buy the healthiest fruit juices available.