As for me, I have stayed away from drinking an artificially-flavoured food. Although they have some nutrients, their sugar content outweighs the nutrients that they have, making the them really harmful for us, by increasing our chances that we will have a diabetes or or our chances of gaining weight.
I don't have much of a choice, considering I don't make the bulk of the money in my household, nor do I carry out the weekly shopping. I kind of just have to request what I would like, or purchase it myself. But if artificially flavored fruit juice in is the house, and I want to drink something other than water, then I will drink it yes. I do prefer natural fruit juice though.
I normally don't but juice is something that has to regularly be replenished in my house so there are times when I get mostly healthy juice that may have a tad on the side of artificial flavours.
The same can be said of juicing at home though.. when you strip the foods of their fibres, you may as well be drinking straight up sugar and your risk of diabetes spikes. I eat whole fruits mostly.. if I feel like a fruit drink, I'll make a smoothie (fruits and greens).
I so drink it and often I prefer it to the supposedly natural alternatives. If I want fresh juice then I'd prefer to just make to myself just so I could be sure of the quality and the sweetness level, as I find most of the ones that you can buy packed taste a bit off and has a bit of cardboard or bitter after taste to it. I like the chemical fruit juices just because they taste good and I don't drink them that often to feel too guilty about it.
Wow, this may seem really obvious to other people but it's really news to me. My mum has a juicer and sometimes juices pineapples and ripe mangoes. She sieves it to get rid of the 'stringy' bits. I've always considered this the healthier option as compared to packaged fruit drinks.
We have a friend who always gives us one plastic bag of big oranges. We need to consume it before it gets rotten and the best way is to make an orange juice out of it. This is way too healthy than those packed juices brought at the store that contains artificial flavors and colors.
The stringy bits are the fibres that, for some reason, are carrying the fructose through your body in a way that doesn't spike your insulin levels like processed sugars do. I'm not sure "they" know exactly why yet. I haven't gone back to the subject in a while, but the studies are there. I would still call it healthier.. but healthier still is the whole fruit or veggie in the state it's meant to be eaten.. from there, I'd blend, not extract.
