Children generally reported positive perceptions and nonrestrictive
home environments regarding fruit juice. One explanation
may be that most parents and children believe that fruit
juice intake is healthy as it is widely marketed this way [43]. This
belief has for a long time been supported by health recommendations
that include so-called unsweetened fruit juices to increase
daily fruit and vegetable intake [8]. Although the recommendation
referred to unsweetened fruit juices, these fruit juices contain
‘natural’ sugar similar or exceeding sugar contents of regular soft
drinks. Future health promotion efforts should help parents and
children to put fruit juice intake in the right perspective, i.e.
explain that 100% fruit juice is healthy, but also contains high
amounts of sugar –comparable to sugar sweetened soft drinks- and
therefore consumption should be limited to 1 glass a day in order
to prevent excessive weight gain.