A new study published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology journal suggests high-sugar content in fruit juices makes them just as bad as sweetened carbonated drinks and sodas, Newsmax Health reports.  

The researchers who conducted the study — Jason Gill, M.D., and Naveed Sattar, professor of metabolic medicine, with the Institute of Cardiovascular and Medical Sciences at the University of Glasgow in Scotland — are calling for changes in "five-a-day" healthy-food guidelines to exclude fruit juice from the list of fruits and vegetable servings that count toward it.

Sattar said, for instance, that a cup of apple juice typically contains 26 grams of sugar — virtually the same level as a cup of cola.

"One glass of fruit juice contains substantially more sugar than one piece of fruit," he explained. "In addition, much of the goodness in fruit — fiber, for example — is not found in fruit juice, or is there in far smaller amounts."

In 2012, Harvard University researchers reported in the journal Circulation that daily consumption of sugar drinks raises a man's heart disease risk by 20 percent. 

Although fruit juices contain vitamins and minerals, the levels of nutrients are not enough to offset the unhealthy effect that excessive consumption has on metabolism, said Dr. Gill.