“No added sugar.”
It sounds so reassuring on a juice carton, doesn’t it? Especially if you’re trying to cut down on fizzy drinks or make “better” choices for you and your family.
But even when there’s no sugar added, juice is still naturally high in it and low in fibre. It’s very easy to drink the sweetness from several pieces of fruit in a few sips, and some “no added sugar” juices are sweetened with things like sucralose or stevia instead, which comes with its own questions.
So where does that leave you if you enjoy a glass of orange juice in the morning, prefer apple juice to squash, or buy “light” cranberry or pomegranate juice because it sounds healthier?
In this post, I’ll look at what “no added sugar” really means, how it affects your health, and how different juices (orange, apple, cranberry, grape, pineapple and pomegranate) compare – without overcomplicating things.
Quick answer: is no added sugar juice healthy?
No added sugar juice can be healthy in small amounts, especially if it’s 100% fruit juice. Just don’t drink it all day, and be cautious with “no added sugar” juice drinks that use sweeteners and additives instead of just fruit.
What does “no added sugar” on juice actually mean?
When you see “no added sugar” on a juice carton, it simply means the manufacturer hasn’t added extra sugar on top of what’s already in the ingredients. So no table sugar, honey, syrups or extra sugary concentrates have been added.
It doesn’t mean the drink is low in sugar. The fruit itself still contains natural sugars (mainly fructose), and once it’s juiced, those sugars become very quick and easy to consume.
With juice, there are usually two main options hiding behind that claim:
- 100% fruit juice with no added sugar – just squeezed or reconstituted fruit juice.
- Juice drinks – a bit of juice mixed with water, flavourings and often sweeteners.
The first one is usually the better choice. A 100% orange, apple or pomegranate juice with no added sugar is exactly that: pure juice. It will still be naturally high in sugar, but at least you know where that sugar is coming from and you’re getting some vitamins and plant compounds at the same time.
Juice drinks are different. They might say “no added sugar”, but when you look at the ingredients list you’ll often see things like sucralose, acesulfame K or stevia, along with flavourings and sometimes stabilisers. So yes, they’re lower in sugar and calories, but you’re swapping sugar for sweeteners and a more processed drink.
So when you pick up a “no added sugar” juice, it’s worth checking:
- Is it 100% fruit juice, or is it a juice drink?
- How much sugar per 100 ml does it still contain?
- Are there sweeteners or additives in the ingredients list?
That quick check on the label will tell you much more than the “no added sugar” claim on the front.
Where does no added sugar juice fit into sugar guidelines?
Health organisations around the world say roughly the same thing about sugar: most of us are having too much, especially from drinks. That includes fruit juice, even when it has no added sugar.
What the World Health Organization says
The World Health Organization talks about free sugars – that’s sugar added to foods and drinks, plus the sugar that naturally occurs in fruit juices, honey and syrups.
Their advice is to keep free sugars to less than 10% of your daily calories, and ideally closer to 5% for extra health benefits.
So if a big chunk of that allowance is coming from juice, it doesn’t leave much room for other sweet foods.
UK guidelines (NHS)
In the UK, the NHS suggests adults should have no more than 30 g of free sugars a day, with lower limits for children. They also advise keeping fruit juice and smoothies to a combined total of 150 ml a day. That small glass can count as one of your five-a-day, but more than that just adds extra sugar.
No added sugar juice still counts as free sugar because the sugar is no longer locked inside the whole fruit.
US guidelines in a nutshell
In the US, the Dietary Guidelines recommend that added sugars should make up less than 10% of daily calories from age two onwards. While they focus mainly on added sugar rather than juice, 100% fruit juice is still something they suggest enjoying in small amounts, not drinking freely throughout the day.
So whichever set of guidelines you look at, the message is similar: sweet drinks, including juice, are something to limit, not a free-for-all.
How juice is different from whole fruit
This is where juice often gets people into trouble.
When you eat an orange or an apple, you’re getting sugar wrapped up in fibre. That fibre slows down how quickly the sugar is absorbed, helps you feel full, and generally makes it harder to overdo it.
With juice, most of that fibre has gone. You’re just left with a sweet liquid that’s very easy to drink quickly. A small 150 ml glass of fruit juice can easily contain around 12 g of sugar (about three teaspoons) – roughly what you’d get from several pieces of fruit.
You wouldn’t normally sit and eat three or four oranges in one go, but it’s very easy to drink the same amount of sugar in a few sips of juice and still feel like you’ve only had a “healthy drink”.
That doesn’t make juice “bad” on its own, but it does mean it behaves more like other sugary drinks in your diet than like whole fruit.
What about teeth and acidity?
Sugar isn’t the only issue. Juice is also acidic, which isn’t great news for your teeth if you sip it all day.
Acidic drinks can slowly weaken tooth enamel over time, and when you add sugar on top of that, the risk of tooth decay goes up. This is why dental and public health advice usually says:
- have juice with meals, not on its own throughout the day
- stick to water in between meals, especially for children.
Even no added sugar juice can still contribute to enamel erosion and cavities if it’s in your mouth often enough.
So, is no added sugar juice healthy – or bad for you?
Overall, no added sugar juice can be part of a healthy diet – but only in small amounts, and only if you’re careful about the type you choose.
For most adults, a small glass of 100% fruit juice now and then is perfectly fine. It adds a few vitamins and helpful plant compounds, but it’s still a sugary drink, so it’s best kept as an occasional extra rather than your daily go-to.
“No added sugar” juice drinks made with sweeteners are a different story. They cut the sugar and calories, but they’re not the kind of thing I’d recommend drinking every day long term.
Here’s what the research actually shows.
What research says about 100% fruit juice in adults
When you look at 100% fruit juice on its own (not fizzy drinks or squash), the evidence is more balanced than a lot of headlines suggest.
Studies that follow adults over time, and reviews that pool lots of results together, generally find that modest amounts of 100% juice (roughly a small glass a day) are not linked with a higher risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes or heart disease.
In some trials, polyphenol-rich juices like orange or pomegranate even show small benefits for things like blood pressure and how well blood vessels relax.
Problems tend to appear at higher intakes. Large, regular glasses of juice on top of an already sugary diet can mean more calories than you realise, and some long-term studies do see a higher risk of weight gain and heart problems when people drink a lot of juice every day.
A quick note on children
For children, juice is more of a grey area.
A big analysis published in 2024 found that each extra daily serving of 100% fruit juice was linked with a small increase in BMI over time in kids. The change wasn’t huge, but it was there.
Most expert advice now says that if children do have juice, it should be:
- 100% fruit juice (not a juice drink)
- served in a small glass
- ideally with a meal, not between meals
Whole fruit is still the better everyday option.
Why juice drinks with artificial sweeteners are best avoided
Some “no added sugar” juices are really juice drinks – a splash of juice mixed with water, flavourings and sweeteners like sucralose, acesulfame K, stevia or aspartame.
Yes, they’re lower in sugar and calories than full-sugar juice. But research is starting to raise questions about what happens when we have these sweeteners all the time.
Large long-term studies have found that people who consume more artificial sweeteners tend to have a higher risk of cardiovascular disease and stroke compared with those who have very little or none.
Smaller human studies also show that some sweeteners can change your gut bacteria and, in some people, actually make blood sugar spikes worse instead of better.
And because these drinks still taste very sweet, they can keep your taste buds used to that level of sweetness, which doesn’t really help if you’re trying to reset your sweet tooth.
We don’t have all the answers yet, but the overall signal isn’t exactly reassuring. So if your “no added sugar” juice gets its sweetness from artificial sweeteners rather than fruit, it’s worth being cautious and not turning that kind of drink into a daily habit.
How different “no added sugar” juices compare
Let’s look at the most common juices you’ll see with “no added sugar” on the label and what they actually offer. I’ll assume we’re talking about 100% fruit juice here – but remember, a lot of cartons are really juice drinks with water, flavourings and sometimes sweeteners, so it’s always worth checking the ingredients.
Orange juice
So, is no added sugar orange juice good for you? It can be, if it’s 100% juice and you keep the amount small.
Orange juice is naturally high in vitamin C, and also gives you folate, potassium and plant compounds called flavanones (especially hesperidin). Some trials have found that hesperidin-rich orange juice can improve blood vessel function and slightly lower blood pressure in people with raised blood pressure.
The flip side is that it’s still a concentrated source of sugar. A small glass can be a helpful extra; big, regular servings will quickly push up your sugar and calorie intake. And if the carton says “orange juice drink” rather than 100% juice, you may be getting added sweeteners as well, which is best avoided long term.
Apple juice
Is no added sugar apple juice healthy? In small amounts, 100% apple juice is fine, but it’s very easy to overdo – and the type of apple juice makes a difference.
Cloudy apple juice is the one that looks hazy in the glass. It hasn’t been filtered as much, so it keeps more of the tiny fruit particles and apple polyphenols.
In one study, whole apples, apple pomace and cloudy juice all tended to lower LDL (“bad”) cholesterol, while clear apple juice actually increased LDL compared to whole apples.
From a sugar point of view, both cloudy and clear apple juice are sweet. Clear apple juice is basically a sugary drink with some vitamins. If you enjoy apple juice, it makes sense to:
- go for 100% cloudy apple juice (not an “apple juice drink” with sweeteners)
- pour a small glass, not a big one
- dilute it if you find it very sweet – I’d personally mix it half juice, half water and it still tastes sweet enough
Cranberry juice
Cranberry juice is one of the few juices with a clear, researched benefit: supporting urinary tract health. A no added sugar version can be helpful, especially for people who get recurrent UTIs – but the label really matters.
Cranberries are rich in compounds called proanthocyanidins (PACs), which help stop certain bacteria sticking to the urinary tract. Several reviews and meta-analyses have found that cranberry products (including juice, capsules and tablets) can reduce the risk of recurrent UTIs in women and other high-risk groups.
The catch is that most supermarket cartons are cranberry drinks, not pure juice – usually a mix of cranberry, other juices, water and often sugar or sweeteners. Many “no added sugar” cartons rely on sweeteners to make the taste work, so they’re closer to a diet squash than 100% cranberry juice.
If you’re choosing cranberry for health reasons, it’s worth:
- looking for 100% unsweetened cranberry juice (you can always dilute it with water or mix it with another juice)
- being cautious with “light” or flavoured cranberry drinks that get their sweetness from sweeteners rather than fruit
If you want to see how this looks on a real label, I go through ingredients, sugar and sweeteners in detail in my review of Ocean Spray cranberry juice on my blog.
Grape juice
Overall, I wouldn’t choose no added sugar grape juice as a health drink, especially not for lowering blood pressure. It’s also one of the naturally sweetest juices, and any potential benefits don’t really outweigh that.
Darker 100% grape juices (like Concord) do contain useful polyphenols, and a few small studies using quite large daily amounts of juice have shown modest blood-pressure improvements in people with hypertension. But the evidence is mixed, and the amounts used in those trials would also mean a big dose of sugar every day – not ideal if you care about your heart or weight.
If you simply enjoy the taste, stick to a small glass of 100% grape juice now and then, and avoid “grape juice drinks” that are diluted and sweetened. But if your goal is blood pressure support, grape or polyphenol supplements (or just whole grapes) make more sense than drinking lots of juice.
Pineapple juice
No added sugar pineapple juice is fine as an occasional drink, but it’s not the kind of powerful anti-inflammatory some marketing might suggest.
It does give you vitamin C, manganese and a natural enzyme called bromelain, but most of the impressive anti-inflammatory results you see in studies come from supplements, not a standard glass of juice.
Like other juices, pineapple juice is sweet and acidic, so big servings aren’t ideal for teeth or blood sugar.
And some “no added sugar” pineapple cartons are really pineapple juice drinks that rely on sweeteners to keep the taste, so it’s worth a quick look at the ingredients to check you’re actually getting 100% juice.
Pomegranate juice
No added sugar pomegranate juice is probably the most promising option for heart health out of all the juices here – as long as you keep the serving small and it really is 100% juice.
It’s rich in powerful polyphenols like punicalagins, which give it strong antioxidant activity.
Several randomized trials and systematic reviews and meta-analyses have found that regular pomegranate consumption (usually a daily glass over a few weeks) can lower blood pressure by a few mmHg and may improve some cholesterol markers, especially in people with high blood pressure or metabolic issues.
A more recent updated meta-analysis reports similar benefits.
The downside is that it’s still high in natural sugar and counts as free sugar. It’s also relatively high in potassium – great for most people, but something to watch if you have kidney problems or need to limit potassium.
If you enjoy it, look for 100% pomegranate juice (not a pomegranate-flavoured drink with sweeteners) and stick to a small glass, rather than treating it as something to drink throughout the day.
Final thoughts on no added sugar juice
If you enjoy juice, it makes sense to choose the kinds that actually give you something back nutritionally. Cloudy apple juice, for example, keeps more of the apple’s natural polyphenols. Orange juice offers vitamin C and flavanones, and pomegranate juice is one of the best options for heart-friendly antioxidants. These are the juices that tend to “earn their sugar” a bit more than the rest.
But even with those, think small and occasional. Most of the time, you’ll get more benefits (and far less sugar) from drinking water and eating the whole fruit instead.
