How Juiced Up Are Your Young Patients on Fruit Juice? Drinking Up a New Meta-Analysis on This Issue :

The intake of high volumes of fruit juice by infants and toddlers has been discouraged through a series of smaller studies contributing to an AAP policy (10.1542/peds.107.5.1210) recommending limited juice intake of only a few ounces a day max after an infant is at least 6 months of age. Part of the reason for this recommendation is that thought that the evidence suggests that excessive juice drinking can increase body mass index (BMI) in small children and help contribute to their becoming overweight or obese.  Aurback et al. (10.1542/peds.2016-2454) have performed a systematic review of more than 4600 articles culminating in 6 prospective cohort studies of more than 34,000 children analyzed in a meta-analysis.  Despite between-study heterogeneity, a daily serving of fruit juice led to a miniscule amount of weight gain (.0003 unit increase in BMI z score over 1 year or a 0% increase in BMI percentile), and doubling that intake (12-16 ounces) only increased BMI percentile by 4%--again a very small amount that was not seen in children between 7 and 18 years.  Should we celebrate by no longer telling families to limit their juice intake? Not so fast despite this review study according to an accompanying commentary by nutritional and preventive health specialists Dr. Steven Abrams and Stephen Daniels who provide an accompanying commentary that is a must-read after you quench your thirst on this review article.  We toast both this study and commentary for providing some food for thought or in this case—beverage for thought.