Who told us this was healthy?
How did fruit become a breakfast drink?
A glass of orange juice looks like health because it looks like fruit. Pouring the fruit changes what you are eating.
Then
Oranges are food. Juice is what is left when the fiber is removed and the serving becomes a drink. During the twentieth century, refrigeration, frozen concentrate, and advertising put that drink on the breakfast table next to cereal and coffee until the combination looked traditional.
This page does not pin the habit on one campaign or one company. Several citrus businesses advertised juice as sunshine, vitamins, and a proper morning. The public result is easier to see than any single ad: juice became what people serve children when they want to say the meal included fruit.
The claim
People were told that a morning glass covers fruit. Current dietary guidance treats whole fruit and juice differently and encourages whole fruit. Juice can be part of a diet. It does not automatically count as the same choice as eating the orange.
Fact
Juice removes most of the fiber and delivers the fruit’s sugars as a beverage.
Belief
A glass at breakfast came to stand in for fruit.
Business
A drink is easier to ship, pour, and advertise as a daily habit than a piece of fruit is.
Behavior
Children learn that fruit can be a sweet drink that disappears in a few swallows.
The takeaway
If the goal is fruit, start with the fruit. If the glass stays, call it a sweet drink that came from fruit, and count it that way.
Sources