Word on the street is that “the jury is still out” on whether juice makes kids fat. While the association between juice intake and obesity has been suggested in the past, a study published in this month’s journal Pediatrics finds no clear correlation between juice or soda intake and overweight in preschoolers.
But if you’re smart, you’re suspicious. The conclusions drawn from medical studies are often difficult to apply in the real world. And in this case the devil’s in the details. As it turns out, we really don’t know how much these kids were exercising. How much they were eating was based on what parents could recall (I can’t recall where I was for breakfast). Finally, real conclusions about soda, juice and weight gain could only be established after following these kids into their school-aged years after they hit what researchers call their “adiposity rebound.” While the researchers mention these shortcomings in their journal article, the details somehow got lost in the news feed.
So hold the juice and don’t believe everything you read.