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juicy treat Many of us do like fruit juice as opposed to another drink, but most often it is not for the same reason. The best example for this is the two of us. One of us likes it because its healthy while the other likes it for no compelling reason other than the fact that it beats drinking fizzy drinks. In Sri Lanka the trend of drinking juices seems to be catching on. Go to any restaurant or any other eatery and you would definitely find that they have fresh juices on the menu. While most often the choice of juices are limited to apple, orange or watermelon, there are outlets specialising in serving fruit juices and are quite popular for the wide variety of juices they have on offer. Many would categorise people drinking juice as a trend. Some would even say it is considered the ‘in’ thing to do at this point in time. As a matter of fact, it’s like going with the flow without really thinking about it. Like the ‘let’s go grab a coffee’ stage, it could be the ‘let’s go grab a juice’ stage… times are changing (or we think). Whatever it is people (at least some of them) have started opting for those yummy fruit juices. After a lot of contemplation and a lot of comments we decided to scout around for a few juice lovers and a few non-juice lovers to hear out what they think about being fellow juice addicts like us or juice loathers. Discreet was not really our strong point hence instead of craftily finding out why people opted for fruit juices, we barely stopped ourselves from pouncing on people… “Well, I prefer to have a juice over a fizzy drink. Not that I am health conscious or anything, but if it is healthy that’s even better,” says Maiia a fellow juice addict. Agreeing with her is Tara. “It’s refreshing, healthy, ideal for my continuous dieting and is… ” gushes Tara on the verge of being speechless, and thus, opts for simply adding, “I just love it,” hopping with pleasure, onto the bandwagon of juice lovers. Following right behind was another. “It does not leave the coating on my teeth like the fizzy drinks do and I don’t feel guilty after drinking fruit juice,” says Danielle. After speaking to the many juice lovers we then decided to speak to some people who really didn’t like juices… “Juice sucks,” says Haren and then seeing our bemused expression, he decides to explain. He points out that for one thing fruit juices are too sweet, and secondly, he hates the semi solid texture, “If it’s not sweet it’s bitter.” Then there is Channaka who really hates juices for a different reason… “I blame my mother for it,” he says explaining that he was brought up on far too much juice at a tender age. Trying very hard not to sound too shocked at this we move on… Now we know the many reasons why people like juices or hate them. So we embarked on a different journey of ‘discovery’. As we all know, having fruit juices has many plus points – especially in the health department. Actually come to think of it, it is a well-known fact. We spoke to Sigrid Samuelsen de Silva – a consultant dietician to get a more in-depth idea about the nutrition value of juices. According to her, there is a significant difference between the fresh and the carton juices, “Fresh juices are always better than the carton juices,” she says. This is so because in the process of preparing the juice, in transport and storage the container juice loses some of its vitamins, minerals, potassium, etc. The main nutrients in fruit juices are Vitamin C and Beta Carotene. Giving us some tips on what to look out for when buying a carton of juice, she said that if you are very keen on the nutrition aspect of carton juice you should keep an eye out for the small print. It will give you an idea of the nutrition value. If you are a health conscious person, this tip will certainly come in handy. Fibres are beneficial for you and juices like papaya and wood-apple are the ideal juices. Passion fruit juice when drunk with the seeds is also a good way to get the fibre needed in your diet. On their own fruits have a lot of calories, for example one glass of orange juice contains around four oranges! “In a tropical country like Sri Lanka, water is really important but when it comes to opting between a fizzy drink and fresh fruit juice, fresh fruit juice is definitely the better option,” says Sigrid. Everything summed up what can we say? Whether you are a fruit juice addict or not really depends on your taste buds and thus, at the end of the day everyone stands divided. So fresh fruit juice drinkers be prepared for the sniggers and the fizzy-drink lovers you’re just going to have to get used to the disapproving looks and the saddened shake of the head. |
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