Filed under: Juice, Science, Culinary Kids, America, Health & Medical

We have heard in the past that drinking fruit juice is just as bad as drinking soda, since even though it contains vitamins and minerals, it still has a high number of calories from sugar. Some even speculated that drinking too many calories is a major cause of childhood obesity. A new study suggests that this speculation is incorrect and that drinking juice does not necessarily contribute to excessive weight gain.

The study, conducted by Dr. Theresa A. Nicklas from the Children's Nutrition Research Center at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, looked at 3-5 year old children and found that, on average, they only consumed 4.7-oz of juice per day, which is well within the 4 to 6-oz. recommended by the US dietary guidelines. It also found that not even 10% of these kids drank as much milk (low-fat or skim, preferably) as they should. Regardless, even when the study participants drank more calories each day, "beverage consumption was not associated with [being] overweight."