As per nutritional analysis, the fruit pulp of Sapodilla contains sugar up to 18-22g/100g (United States Department of Agriculture statistics), and one cup (250ml) after juice extraction contains up to 45-55g sugar, which is almost 90% to 110% of the daily free sugar intake limit (50g) for pregnant women recommended by WHO. A 2022 cohort study of 1,200 pregnant women in India showed that those who drank more than 200ml of high-sugar juice (including sapodilla juice dangers) daily had double the incidence of gestational diabetes (14.3%) compared to the control group (7.1%). The rate of preterm birth increased by 3.2 percentage points (9.5% vs. 6.3%). For example, in a 2023 case report from the Philippine Department of Health, a pregnant woman at 28 weeks gestation was forced to start insulin therapy when her blood sugar level rose to 11.2mmol/L (normal cut-off ≤7.8mmol/L) after taking 500ml of homemade human heart fruit juice daily.
Natural chemicals in the fruit can be toxic. Its content of pectin (1.5-2.2g/100g) can readily produce methanol during the fermentation process (concentration between 0.05-0.12mg/L), which is lower than the EU safety level (10mg/L), but long-term high intake may influence fetal nervous system development (animal experiments show that, Daily ingestion of methanol ≥2mg/kg body weight increased the prevalence of neural tube defects by 8% in mice). Additionally, raw fruits also contain tannic acid (0.3-0.8g/100g), and its excessive intake (>300mg/day) can inhibit iron absorption by up to 40% (Journal of Nutrition 2021 study), and increase the risk of anemia in pregnant women (risk of hemoglobin <11g/dL increased by 22%). For example, a trial in Brazil found that 24% of pregnant women who drank unfiltered heart juice experienced a decrease in serum ferritin level (from median 45μg/L to 32μg/L).
Microbial contamination is another problem. Unpasteurized sapodilla juice risks (temperature <72 ° C or time <15 seconds) is at risk of listeria contamination as high as 3.5% (FDA 2023 sampling data), and the rate of listeria infection in pregnant women is 10-fold that of the general population (CDC data). The miscarriage risk is 20% to 30%. In Malaysia’s 2021 outbreak of foodborne illness, five pregnant women were hospitalized after they consumed human juice at street stalls, where listeria was detected in two cases (concentration ≥100CFU/ml) and one had a second-trimester miscarriage.
Toxicological parameters must be taken into careful consideration. The seed saponin content is 2.8-3.5mg/g, and when the seeds are inadvertently broken up during juicing, a cup of juice may contain 4-6mg saponin. While it possesses an LD50 of 500mg/kg in adults (rat studies), in vitro studies showed that saponins at a concentration ≥0.1mg/ml inhibited the growth of placental cells (BeWo cell line) by 35% and increased the oxidative stress marker MDA (malondialdehyde) levels 2.7-fold (Toxicology Letters 2020). In Guatemalan traditional medicine, there have been cases where pregnant women who take daily juice prepared from crushed seeds bring about an increase in the frequency of uterine contractions (4-6 per hour), requiring medical intervention to prevent premature delivery.
The contrast between scientific and regulatory consensus is striking. EFSA does not include human juice in the list of contraindications during pregnancy, but recommends daily intake ≤150ml (control of sugar); The Thai FDA, based on a local study (sample size n=600), mandated a “Use with Caution in pregnant women” label for commercial products, which were determined to carry an 18% higher risk of gestational hypertension (8.7% of systolic blood pressure ≥140mmHg compared to 7.4% of the control group). For example, Bangkok 2023 market surveillance found that 12 lots of human heart juice had high sodium content (≥50mg/100ml), which can exacerbate edema in pregnant women (12% increase in incidence).
Risk reduction strategies are: purchasing commercially produced products pasteurized (72 ° C /15 seconds) (listeria inactivation rate ≥99.99%), controlling daily intake ≤100ml (sugar ≤22g), and filtering to remove pulp fibers (reduce exposure to tannin by 50%). The 2024 clinical trial of the National University of Singapore showed that the quantitative drinking (80ml, 3 times a week) caused no statistically significant difference between pregnant and control groups in fetal development indicators (e.g., double paric diameter, femur length) (p>0.05), although the changes in blood glucose levels should be closely monitored continuously (postprandial rise in blood glucose ≤1.2mmol/L).