All fructose is processed by the liver in the same way as alcohol. That includes fruit juice.
All this changes in the presence of fiber. If you eat a piece of fresh fruit, the fiber in the fruit changes the way the fructose from the fruit is absorbed so it's not such a huge shock to the liver.
Fruit juice != fruit.
Drinking a tall glass of orange juice is the equivalent of eating 6~8 oranges, but without the fibers.
Your liver treats the massive sugar dump much differently than eating the equivalent # of [fruit].
The FDA wants to toss fruit juices into the same category of "bad" drinks as sugar laden sodas.
Exactly true, and yet millions of (nutritionally) uneducated mothers and/or fathers insist that their children drink plenty of juice (most of which is probably only 10% real fruit juice to begin with), instead of soda... because it's "healthy".
I won't go off on my usual rant about the terrible food pyramid we've been brainwashed with since the 60s ("eat a shitload of bread, but NO FATS!"), but the bigger problem I'm seeing every day is just an utter ignorance about what people put into their body, or an unwillingness to try something different.
"It says LEAN Cuisine on the box! That means I'll lose weight by eating it."
My dad taught me something when I was younger, probably without even meaning to... if you can't pronounce all the ingredients, you shouldn't eat it. Of course, as a kid, I ignored that advice and just ate whatever tasted good. My mother did her best, but she grew up in an Italian household, which means a lot of pasta and other starches. When she went back to work, the fridge was filled with microwaveable "food", that I could nuke whenever I thought I was hungry. Guess who was a fat kid who sucked at sports, couldn't keep up with friends when there was running, biking, climbing, or jumping was involved? Guess who grew up to be a fat adult who tried all the same shit (pills, "diet" meals, "magic" exercise apparatus, etc.) as many other fat people, with the same results... still fat.
It took a combination of a rough period in my life, combined with pure dumb luck... I was really low and, rather than drown myself in booze, I decided that I'd had enough, and that it was time to work on me. I got an email from a major men's magazine, offering a 30-day free trial of a book (which I've shilled on /. before), the title of which appealed to desire to be more of a man than I saw in the mirror at the time. The price of the book was less than a night at the local watering hole, so I went for it. When it arrived, first I thumbed through it. There was a lot of *common sense* stuff in there that just hadn't occurred to me before. So, I went back and READ it. Many an a-ha moment. Then I went back again and applied it. Now, at the risk of sounding like a braggart, I'm one of the most fit guys in the office. People are constantly asking for, and then either disregarding or outright refuting my advice. The result is, they're still fat, and I'm still not.
Bottom line is, there's no magic pill, there's no silver bullet, there's really no secret. Back in the caveman days, right up to a half century ago, you almost had to try to get fat. Now, the food manufacturers (think about that phrase for a moment) are pumping chemicals into their products to make them taste better, cheaper. When I was a kid, McDonald's was a once-in-a-while treat. Now it's considered by many to be a viable option for all three major meals. People get in their car and drive to the store a block away. Hell, I see parents put their kids in the van and drive TO THE END OF THE DRIVEWAY to wait for the bus. People would rather wait in their car for 20 minutes in the Dunkin' Donuts drive through than park, get out, and be in and out of the place in 2 minutes. Schools have dropped gym class to save money and make more time for standardized tests. My oldest son tells me they don't really do the President's Fitness Challenge like they did when I was a kid, and they've dropped the chin up test altogether, because too many kids can't do them. Hey, I couldn't do them when I was a kid... and I suffered the embarrassment every year. Know what? Tough shit on me... I should have worked at it, and I'd have been able to eventually. Kids don't play outside as much, if at all, because we have become paralyzed with fear of kidnappers and child molesters who were ALWAYS there, but just get noticed more now because of our instantaneous information society.
There, I've gone and started ranting. Anyways, we live in a world today where the deck is stacked against our collective health and fitness. That won't change until we make it. The corporations will continue feeding us meals made in a laboratory as long as we continue to buy them. It's harder to get and stay in shape and healthy than it used to be, but it's still possible, and it is STILL our responsibility. It's OUR responsibility to ourselves and to our children and to society as a whole. Nobody can or should do it for us. It's a bit of a challenge, but it's still very simple: Stay away from prepackaged foods... stick to the perimeter of the supermarket. Learn how to cook. Learn the difference between complex and simple carbohydrates, and "good" versus "bad" fats. Drink a lot of water, soda is not good for you. Move around more. Play with your kids outside, even if they don't want to... eventually they'll learn to appreciate the time that they get to spend with you instead of the Wii (and, no, the Wii is not exercise equipment, sorry). Above all, demonstrate a little, or a lot of, willpower! Show your kids what it's like to have a backbone and determination.
I'm sorry, I just get very passionate about this subject... not unlike when somebody becomes a Born Again Christian and starts trying to shove the Gospel down everybody's throat. Difference here, though, is many people complain about their being fat and don't know what to do about it... nobody complains about not being religious enough because if they want to be, they can just do it.
