Pure fruit juice certainly is higher in vitamins and minerals than soda drinks. However, even pure fruit juices are high in a natural sugar called fructose. Fruit juices are very similar to sodas in the number of calories they carry. The sugar in sodas can be thought of as simple table sugar which has been added by the manufacturer. Your body treats and uses both the natural and man-made types of sugar identically. In terms of how much sugar they contain, a glass of orange juice is equivalent to about four to five oranges - and that's a lot of sugar. A wiser choice would be to eat a single orange (or other piece of fruit) for the vitamins, minerals and fiber it contains and drink more water instead.

Additional Resources:

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffiles/FS/FS14400.pdf