About 90 per cent of Irish people bought or made juice in the past year, but experts warn that the whole fruit holds the key to health. Hélène Hofmanreports.
More Irish people are turning to juice to boost their immune systems or simply to detox.
However, experts warn that although juice contains vitamins and nutrients, it won't give you the fibre of the whole fruit or vegetable and too much can do more harm than good.
About 90 per cent of Irish people bought or made juice in the past year, according to the TNS mrbi. Juice products are making up an increasingly large portion of the €296 million cold beverage industry. The smoothie sector alone grew by 94 per cent in May 2005-May 2006, and is now worth €5.4 million.
And it's not just sales of ready-made products and home juicers that are up. Juice bars are continuing to open around the State. In 2006, O'Briens sandwich bars opened its 45th juice bar in Ireland, and Zumo, which now has 30 juice bars here, expanded into the UK and Spain.
"There is a lot of talk about juice, especially at this time of the year," says Paula Mee, consultant dietician at the Dublin Nutrition Clinic. "People want to detox and get healthy but there is some confusion over the benefits of juice."
The Department of Health recommends that we eat five portions of fruit or vegetables per day to stay healthy. However, only one of these portions can be made up by juice.
According to Mee, adults should not drink more than a 200ml-300ml glass a day.
For young and pre-school children, a 150ml glass is sufficient.
"We tend to over-consume when it comes to juice," according to Mee.
"More is not necessarily better, because in terms of fibre content - and fibre is something most of us need more of - eating the whole fruit or vegetable is better than just the juice.
"Also, too much can cause diarrhoea and you may feel bloated and get stomach pains," warns Mee.
"So-called juice gurus will talk about them as a health weapon, which they're not. They're not a magical solution to everything," she says. "They're good and nutritious but they won't fight anything unless the rest of your diet is good.
"Another problem with juice is that it is absorbed into the bloodstream quicker so it has a higher GI rating and it won't fill you up as well as the actual fruit or vegetable.
"Also, you can pack quite a few calories into a glass of juice. This is not good for those of us trying to lose weight," says Mee.
In her experience, people mistake drinking juice as a way to lose weight, but also as a good way to detox.
However, Dr Gabriel Mortimer, a consultant histopathologist at University College Hospital Galway, says there is little evidence to support claims that juice has detoxing properties.
"Getting more fruit and vegetables into your diet is always a good thing and is to be encouraged," says Mortimer,
"But I'm not convinced about the detoxing claims. The whole concept is a bit curious. Our bodies are geared to detox themselves.
"If you drink coffee for example, simply stopping for a few days will allow your liver and kidney to clean themselves - a fruit or vegetable drink is unlikely to help with that.
"There are advantages to making your own juice. If you buy it off the supermarket shelves, there's a good chance sugar and preservatives will have been added. It will be pasteurised so will have been boiled," he says.
"When you make it yourself, you know you're getting the pure substance with no additives," says Mortimer.
There are two types of home juice makers on the market.
Masticulating juicers are the more expensive of the two, but Paula Mee says they are more likely to get fibre into the juice.
They work by crushing the fruit or vegetable into a pulp and pressing out the juice.
With centrifugal juicers, the fruit or vegetable is put into a spinning basket with holes like a sieve that grates the fruit or vegetable, leaving the pulp (and the fibre) within the walls and pushing the juice out.
The Food Safety Authority warns that anyone making their own juice at home should take certain precautions.
"There is a potential food poisoning risk that you need to be aware of," says Dr Wayne Anderson, chief specialist in food science with the Food Safety Authority of Ireland. "There is a risk of e-coli 054, zetec and salmonella if you're not careful.
"To prevent these, all fruit and vegetables must be washed thoroughly to reduce the bacterial load.
"Also, make sure you're using clean equipment and not transferring bacteria from other parts of your kitchen.
"It's probably best to drink these juices immediately. And if you do store them, store them in a refrigerator for no more than 24 hours," he says.
"However, from a nutritional point of view - which is the reason most people drink these juices - storing it may cause some of the more sensitive nutrients, like vitamin C, to disappear," says Anderson.
Margot Brennan, consultant dietitian with the Irish Nutrition and Dietetic Institute, says that eating the vegetable or fruit whole is better, but if you can't eat it, juice it.
"Basically if you detest fruit and vegetables, juicing could be the way to go," she says. "Juices aren't the be all and end all.
"Buying a juicer isn't guaranteed to make you healthy," she says.
"Go for the fruit or vegetables first, whether they're canned, boiled or frozen. They don't have to be fresh.
"But if that doesn't work then go for the juicing," she says.