Ray Peat on Orange Juice and Fruit

Short answer: Orange juice is the fruit Ray Peat mentions most. He wrote that a quart of it a day, with milk, covers the sugar needed for general resistance to stress, and he valued fruit because its sugar arrives together with potassium, magnesium and calcium.

What Ray Peat wrote about orange juice and fruit

His best known line on quantity is that a daily diet with two quarts of milk and a quart of orange juice provides enough fructose and other sugars for general resistance to stress. Source: Sugar issues

He cites an experiment in which people drank 300 calories of glucose, fructose or orange juice. Glucose caused a large rise in oxidative and inflammatory stress. That rise was absent with fructose and with orange juice. Source: Sugar issues

He pointed out that orange juice and sucrose have a lower glycemic index than white or whole wheat bread, and mocked dietitians who warn against orange juice because its index matches Coca-Cola's. Source: Glycemia, starch, and sugar in context

Sugar works best with minerals. He wrote that sugars are much more likely to be healthful in the long run when they come with potassium, calcium and other protective nutrients, as in milk and fruit. Source: Glucose and sucrose for diabetes

Fruits have a safe calcium to phosphate ratio and are rich in magnesium. He mentions that eating fruit may protect against prostate cancer by lowering phosphate in the blood. Source: Phosphate, activation, and aging, Bone Density: First Do No Harm, Sugar issues

In menopausal women, fruit and vegetable intake protects against bone loss, while unsaturated fats are associated with it. Source: Osteoporosis, aging, tissue renewal, and product science

Using fruit as a major part of the diet, in place of cereals and beans, helps to minimize the effects of polyunsaturated fats. Source: Glucose and sucrose for diabetes

What he suggested in practice

• A quart of orange juice a day, with milk, is the amount he mentions.
• Orange juice at bedtime and before getting out of bed, because the blood thickens and clots more easily during the night.
• Orange juice, Coca-Cola or ice cream for quick relief of low blood sugar.
• Refined sugar only as a stand-in when good fruit is not available.

Where he wrote about it

This topic comes up in 33 of the articles on his site. These are the most relevant ones:

• Sugar issues · original on raypeat.com ↗
• Vegetables, etc. — Who Defines Food? · original on raypeat.com ↗
• Glycemia, starch, and sugar in context · original on raypeat.com ↗
• Stem cells, cell culture, and culture: Issues in regeneration · original on raypeat.com ↗
• Eclampsia in the Real Organism: A Paradigm of General Distress Applicable in Infants, Adults, Etc · original on raypeat.com ↗
• Oils in Context · original on raypeat.com ↗
• Meat physiology, stress, and degenerative physiology · original on raypeat.com ↗
• Glucose and sucrose for diabetes · original on raypeat.com ↗

My take

Juice is one of my main carb sources, next to honey, fruit and Coke. Simple sugars are absorbed in the small intestine, so they leave nothing for the bacteria in the colon to ferment.

Quick answers

How much orange juice did Ray Peat recommend?

He mentions a quart of orange juice a day together with two quarts of milk as enough sugar for general resistance to stress.

Why did Ray Peat recommend orange juice?

Because it supplies sugar together with potassium and other minerals, has a lower glycemic index than bread, and in one study did not cause the inflammatory stress that pure glucose did.

What fruits did Ray Peat recommend?

His website articles name orange juice and speak of fruit in general. They do not rank individual fruits.