Many of the fruit soups you buy in the supermarket are 10 percent fruit and 90 percent sugar, Escobar points out. Things are not much better, even if you squeeze the soup yourself, she says. Think about it: if you eat a piece of fruit, let’s say an orange, you only eat one or two at a time. Not only does it have less sugar than soup, but it is also packed with fiber, which is digested more slowly, keeps your blood sugar stable and fills you up longer. If you are making fresh soup, you will need easily, five or six oranges. That’s pretty much all sugar and no glass fiber, you set up for a spike in blood sugar and the jitters.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children under one year not receive fruit juice; that children from one to three years have no more than three ounces per day; children four to six no more than four to six ounces daily; and a maximum of eight ounces for children aged seven and over. Dried fruit, with such concentrated sugar, poses much the same problem.
