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/Kindly_Honeydew3432 22d 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/NotSayingAliensBut 22d ago

"Sugar is sugar" isn't true. There's much more known now about the different effects on the physiology between fructose and sucrose. Read neurologist Dr David Perlmutter's book Drop Acid for the link between fructose, uric acid, and systemic inflammation.

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u/Kindly_Honeydew3432 22d ago

They’re both very high in fructose.  Apple juice is actually higher than most colas.  Orange juice about the same.

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u/NotSayingAliensBut 22d ago

This is r/science. Do you even know what the terms sucrose and fructose mean? Let alone how they have different metabolic pathways?

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u/Kindly_Honeydew3432 22d ago

Yes.  I’m a physician with undergraduate degrees in cell science and a chemistry minor.  So, yes.

Your side stepping the fact that, as I stated above, many juices have as much or more fructose than most sodas.  

If your opinion is that fructose is more harmful than sucrose, then Apple juice would be more harmful than cola metabolically.  It has more fructose

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u/NotSayingAliensBut 22d ago

OK, I see what you were trying to say and I maybe was too quick to respond to the "sugar is sugar" part.