Using the same database that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) uses to confirm the rise in obesity rates, researchers have concluded that 100 percent juice is not associated with young children being overweight or at risk for becoming overweight
The research abstract, presented today at the Pediatric Academic Societies, annual meeting in Toronto, looked at dietary intakes of 3,618 children ages 2-11 using the well-known National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES).
According to Dr. Theresa Nicklas, "We did not find a relationship between 100 percent juice consumption and overweight among children." She adds, "Even among the children who consumed the most juice, we found no association at all with the children being overweight or at risk for overweight." Dr. Nicklas, a child nutrition researcher at the USDA Children's Nutrition Research Center at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, found that 100 percent juice consumption also did not decrease the amount of milk consumed in children's diets, which appears to be a common misconception.
The mean consumption for this childhood population was 4.1 ounces (about , cup), an amount that is keeping with recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics. Although there were a few children (13 percent) in this age group who consumed larger amounts of juice (12 ounces or more), their increased consumption was not associated with overweight or at risk for being overweight. In fact, children in the 2-3 year old category who drank the most juice were nearly three times less likely to be overweight or at risk for overweight than children who drank no juice at all.