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[-] Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone 121 points 1 day ago

100% fruit juices would remain exempt

Why?? Shit’s sugar. You’re not getting most of the nutritional benefit from juice, all the fiber has been removed.

[-] LittleBorat3@lemmy.world 3 points 3 hours ago

Someone paid someone else a million and now juice with 50 percent sugar is not included in this.

Stevia coke is, how weird ..

[-] hanrahan@slrpnk.net 10 points 1 day ago

because they aren't purtity testing their legislation and added sugar and added artificial sweeteners is their current target, it's a start ffs

[-] cattywampas@lemmy.world 57 points 1 day ago

My guess is because it's unsweetened, and that the tax applies to drinks with added sugar or sweetener.

[-] Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone 52 points 1 day ago

‘We should reduce sugar and sweetener consumption, let’s not tax this drink that’s almost pure sugar because it’s natural’ is asinine. Apple juice has virtually identical sugar content to a soda.

[-] tyler@programming.dev 9 points 1 day ago

They’re not the same types of sugar. Your body uses glucose differently than fructose.

[-] pseudo@jlai.lu 5 points 6 hours ago

They are both very high in fructose. What is your point? I genuinly don't get it.

[-] liuther9@lemmy.world 0 points 8 hours ago

What is the difference? Both harmful same way, glucose spikes, leads to obesity

[-] SalmiakDragon@feddit.nu 6 points 1 day ago

Maybe to some extent? I don't think the superiority of one monosaccharide over the other has been clearly established. There are differences, but the health impact of them are not clear. Also, "glucose vs fructose" is

  1. not super-relevant to the matter of comparing juice with soda. At least here in the Nordics, most sodas seem to be sweetened with sugar, a.k.a. sucrose (a.k.a. fructose+glucose, see below), and maybe a splash of juice. (Based on a survey of my favorites, though I mostly drink the Zero-versions)

  2. a bit of a false choice (see below).


Fructose often co-occurs with glucose

(Source: Wikipedia article on Fructose)

  • Fructose co-exists with glucose, in sucrose ...

Fructose, or fruit sugar, is a common monosaccharide, i.e. a simple sugar. It is classified as a reducing hexose, more specifically a ketonic simple sugar found in many plants, where it is often bonded to glucose to form the disaccharide sucrose.

  • ... and in fruit.

Table: "Sugar content of selected common plant foods". Note that many of the fruits' sugar content is dominated by a combination of sucrose and free fructose. Only plum breaks this trend, containing mostly glucose instead (still 47% sucrose and fructose).

  • Also: Fructose mostly ends up as glucose

The liver converts most fructose and galactose into glucose for distribution in the bloodstream or deposition into glycogen.

"Potential health effects"

  • A lot of the discussion in this part of the article is just about overconsumption of dietary sugars (including glucose and sucrose) in general, which would indicate to me that the differences between them aren't all that significant. However:

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) stated in 2011 that fructose may be preferable over sucrose and glucose in sugar-sweetened foods and beverages because of its lower effect on postprandial blood sugar levels,[58] while also noting the potential downside that "high intakes of fructose may lead to metabolic complications such as dyslipidaemia, insulin resistance, and increased visceral adiposity".[58][59] The UK's Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition in 2015 disputed the claims of fructose causing metabolic disorders, stating that "there is insufficient evidence to demonstrate that fructose intake, at levels consumed in the normal UK diet, leads to adverse health outcomes independent of any effects related to its presence as a component of total and free sugars."[60]

  • "Compared to sucrose"

Fructose was found to increase triglycerides in type-2 but not type-1 diabetes, and moderate use of it has previously been considered acceptable as a sweetener for diabetics,[61] possibly because it does not trigger the production of insulin by pancreatic β cells.[62] For a 50 gram reference amount, fructose has a glycemic index of 23, compared with 100 for glucose and 60 for sucrose.[63] Fructose is also 73% sweeter than sucrose at room temperature, allowing diabetics to use less of it per serving.

[-] Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone 0 points 1 day ago

The sugar in soda contains fructose (it is in fact 50% fructose). Soda with HFCS isn’t actually that much higher in fructose than plain sugar soda, ironically; the ‘high’ just means ‘higher than white sugar’.

[-] tyler@programming.dev 2 points 1 day ago

The “high” means greater than 55% fructose. HFCS has to be at minimum HFCS-55 according to the FDA. Many sodas mix HFCS-55 with HFCS-90 to increase the concentration. And I never said that soda doesn’t have fructose? Don’t know where you got that.

[-] Valmond@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 day ago

Isn't it fructose, or has it changed during the "jucification" process? I mean fructose is sugar, but way less bad than refined sugars.

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[-] ghurab@lemmy.world 16 points 1 day ago

That's not true, the tax apply to unsweetened milk alternatives.

[-] Nalivai@lemmy.world 1 points 6 hours ago

This is probably the most bizzare part

[-] tomi000@lemmy.world 1 points 19 hours ago

The problem is processed sugar being the cheapest calories per weight you can find so adding sugar to drinks is hyper cheap while getting people (especially kids) addicted and sick. 100% fruit juices arent the problem.

[-] atzanteol@sh.itjust.works 6 points 11 hours ago

No, the problem is that people have simply demonized soda. HFCS in particular. It's not about sugar, it never has been. An exception for fruit juice makes this obvious. It's the "naturalistic fallacy" in action.

[-] tomi000@lemmy.world 2 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago)

How does an exception for fruit juice (containing natural sugar and relatively expensive) make it obvious that its not about added sugar and cheap drinks?

[-] RamRabbit@lemmy.world 0 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

Sugar is exactly as healthy as sugar. Notice how I didn't add any words to the front? Those words don't change how (un)healthy sugar is. The law clearly isn't about health; as it is portrayed.

Furthermore, they tax artificial sweeteners as well. So, might as well use actual sugar if you are paying the tax either way!

[-] tomi000@lemmy.world 1 points 2 hours ago

Sugar is exactly as healthy as sugar.

This shows how little you know about the subject yet you keep arguing as if you had facts. Sugar is a category of compounds consisting mainly of saccharids (which again, is a category of compounds). There are literally thousands of "sugars" which vary wildly in their effects on the human body. Also, other stuff you ingest/digest at the same time influences those as well..

Furthermore, they tax artificial sweeteners as well.

Nope. Klingbeil revoked that immediately afterwards.

[-] qyron@sopuli.xyz 6 points 1 day ago

A company (Compal) in my country (Portugal) that has been making whole fruit juice since the 70's. If they made it any thicker, you could eat it with a fork.

Spain and France also have off-brand manufacturers of this type of fruit drink. Germany could learn something

[-] Jake_Farm@sopuli.xyz 13 points 1 day ago

Because like all laws, corruption came into the process to make it miss the goal entirely.

[-] Hegar@fedia.io 4 points 1 day ago

Taxing almost all sugary drinks including artificial sweetners but not 100% juice is not "missing the goal entirely". That's still hitting the unhealthiest and most marketed beverages.

[-] Jake_Farm@sopuli.xyz 18 points 1 day ago

There is no evidence that sugar substitutes are unhealthy and in fact have proven over and over again to increase weight loss compared to full sugar or telling people to "just drink more water".

[-] huppakee@lemmy.world 10 points 1 day ago

I'd agree if this targeted products with added sugar and left the artificial sweetners out of it. Fruit juice is also sold in high volumes, especially to families and people beyond their prime age. They might be less marketed, but I would argue they're not less unhealthy than soda with artificial sweetners. They might not miss the figurative goal entirely, but they sure are missing their literal goal if they are doing this to limit peoples consumption of unhealthy drinks.

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[-] LemmyPlaceDN@europe.pub 3 points 1 day ago

Not all sugar is the same. I've read that natural fruit sugar is still way healthier than industrially refined sugar. Also fruit juice usually contains vitamins, electrolytes and fiber. So from a health perspective it makes sense to me to exempt 100℅ fruit juices. The alternative would be to only allow juice mixed with water or something else.

[-] atzanteol@sh.itjust.works 5 points 11 hours ago

Jesus, the Kennedy-fication of public health is real.

[-] OilyArena@lemmy.ml 1 points 8 hours ago

Well, you read wrong. Fructose is a very short chain sugar and is absorbed into the bloodstream a lot faster than "regular" sugar, making it more unhealthy.

[-] Nalivai@lemmy.world 1 points 6 hours ago

But it's much more sweet tasting so you need less of it. Don't know if it actually balances out though.

[-] SalmiakDragon@feddit.nu 4 points 1 day ago

Read where?

I'll just link to another comment I made here: https://feddit.nu/post/22364165/21693381

[-] LemmyPlaceDN@europe.pub 0 points 23 hours ago

I read in a magazine a few years ago, so I can't point you to that exact source. But yeah, it's surely more complicated than that

[-] SaharaMaleikuhm@feddit.org 4 points 1 day ago

You can't expect logic from a conservative government, silly.

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this post was submitted on 26 Aug 2026
368 points (96.0% liked)

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