Fruit Drink

Food · Drink · Food, Typed Supps

A fruit drink is not a fruit juice, and neither one is fruit.

Stage by stage

Intake (Mouth): Nothing to chew; the drink reaches the stomach almost immediately.
Emptying (Stomach): With no fat, protein or fibre, the liquid empties into the small intestine rapidly.
Absorption (Small intestine): Glucose and fructose are absorbed quickly, producing a steep rise in blood glucose.
Metabolism (Liver): Fructose is processed almost entirely by the liver; glucose circulates for use or storage.

Time to effect

Under an hour: Blood glucose peaks roughly 30 to 45 minutes after drinking.

Allergens

None of the fourteen major allergens. Derived from what this food is, not from a product label.

Eating patterns

Fits: Vegan, Vegetarian, Pescatarian, Halal, Kosher, Gluten-free. Depends on the product: Low-FODMAP.

Satiety

Not scored: the satiety index is measured on 240 kcal servings, and nobody eats a 240 kcal serving of this. The question does not apply rather than the answer being unknown.

Environmental footprint

1.1 kg CO2e and 199 litres of freshwater per kg, matched to "Other fruit" in Poore & Nemecek (2018), Science 360.

Cost band

Cheap — roughly £2.5 per kg, as a band midpoint rather than a price.

Key nutrients

Added sugars
Vitamin C (usually added)
Water

Nutrition per 100g

Calories: 47
Protein: 0g
Carbohydrate: 12.2g
of which sugars: 11.3g
Fat: 0g
of which saturated: 0g
Fibre: 0.1g
Sodium: 9mg

Food vs. supplement

As a vitamin C source this is an expensive and sugar-heavy route: the same vitamin C is available from a piece of citrus or a capsule without the added sugar. The honest framing is that a fruit drink is a sweet drink that happens to contain some vitamin C, not a health product.

Kitchen tip

Diluting a fruit drink with water lowers the sugar per glass but does nothing about frequency, which is what drives dental erosion. A slice of fresh fruit in plain water gives the flavour cue without either.

Common myth

“A fruit drink is basically a serve of fruit in liquid form.” In reality: It is not, on two counts. It may legally contain as little as 5% juice, and even at 100% juice the fibre and cell wall structure that make whole fruit filling and slow-releasing have been removed.