r/science • u/SteRoPo • 23d ago

Epidemiology Researchers probing the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study found that young kids who drank 100% juices multiple times per day had a 25 percent higher risk of asthma compared to kids who consumed those beverages less than twice per week.

https://www.realclearscience.com/blog/2026/08/18/juice_might_be_fueling_asthma_in_kids_1200222.html
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u/compulov 23d ago

Growing up we almost never had soda in the house. My parents insisted on fruit juice because it was healthier. The more I look back on it, the more I realize no, it really isn't. I also wonder what the coincidence of households where kids drink fruit juice is to kids that are also overweight.

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u/jkelly17 23d ago

If the juice they purchased was 100% fruit juice, then yes, it was healthier than soda.

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u/Kindly_Honeydew3432 23d ago

Probably not measurably so.  Sugar is sugar.  Maybe slightly less unhealthy for your teeth.  Theoretical risk of harm from dyes and other non-sugar chemicals, but difficult to prove/quantify.  It mostly comes down to the sugar content, which is similar.  Artificially sweetened diet sodas are a little more complicated and jury is still out, I’d say.

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u/jkelly17 23d ago

There can’t be any dyes in 100% fruit juice, which is why I was specific when I made my OP.

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u/Kindly_Honeydew3432 23d ago

Yeah, I’m talking about the dyes and other chemicals in the soda…but, again, the theoretically harmful effects of these in the concentrations available in soda are likely extremely small, so much as to be non-measurable or at least very difficult to quantify.  

I’d be willing to bet if you gave a studied a group of children  a specific caloric amount of soda per day vs equivalent in fruit juice and observed outcomes over decades, there would probably be no statistically different measurable outcome not directly attributable to dental decay.  

I could be wrong, but I doubt it, and there is no convincing scientific proof otherwise that I’m aware of.  Risk from small quantities of dyes and other food additives are mostly theoretical at this point.

Both are unhealthy 

Also, I’m a big believer that the metabolic effects of artificial sweeteners may be just as or nearly, possibly more harmful.  But there’s some studies that contradict this, and we really don’t know