A nice, tall glass of orange juice seems like a healthy beverage, right? As far as sugar and calories are concerned, you might as well drink a can of Coca-Cola. Read on.

Orange juice has been around as long as there have been oranges, which is only a little over 2,000 years. What we consider oranges did not develop naturally, they are actually a hybrid of pomelo and mandarin citrus fruits dating back to 314 B.C.E. in southern China.

Orange trees are the most cultivated fruit tree in the world, and account for about 70% of all citrus production. That works out to 79 million metric tons every year, with 22% from Brazil followed by China, India, the U.S., and Mexico. In the United States, oranges destined for juice production are grown in Florida.

Despite being extremely unhealthy otherwise, oranges contain a whole lot of vitamin C. They were used extensively by European sailors to combat scurvy back in the Pirates of the Caribbean days. Vitamin C deficiency was a concern during WWII, and the U.S. federal government teamed up with Florida citrus growers to develop concentrated orange juice that could easily be shipped and stored. Orange juice concentrate finally came about in 1948 and by 1949, Florida was pumping out 10 million gallons of the stuff. If you know your history, the war was over by that point.

It may seem odd to us today, but for decades, concentrated orange juice (you had to mix it with water) was the thing, and people loved it. It wasn’t until the late 1980’s that the market turned to bottled juices that were not from concentrate, and that this the most popular to this day.

No matter how you produce it, orange juice has a ton of calories and sugars. Tropicana (PepsiCo) has the most market share in the U.S., followed by Minute Maid (Coca-Cola), Florida’s Natural, and Simply Orange. All of those products generally have 110 calories and 22 grams of sugar per 8oz (240 ml) serving. Minute Maid is actually even worse, with 150 calories and 24 grams of sugar in the same amount.

To put that into perspective, 8oz of Coca-Cola only has 92 calories and the same amount of sugar. Eight ounces of the original green Monster Energy has 101 calories and 27 grams of sugar. Yeah, orange juice is just as bad for you as regular soda and energy drinks.

If you are thinking about squeezing your own to avoid the processed juice, natural orange juice has the same amount of calories and sugar as the commercially bottled variety.

Orange juice is highly regulated in places like Canada and the U.K. because it is so unhealthy. The USDA actually promotes drinking orange juice because otherwise Florida would go bankrupt. I told you it is terrible.