TIME to give the system a rest. You, of course, might be one of those wonderfully self-disciplined people who has barely eaten an extra morsel or drunk a drop more over the festive season.

The rest of us are not.

But enough is enough, so today we are looking at nice healthy fruit juices to spark up our systems for a healthy new year.

All a bit complicated really. There are juices freshly squeezed from fruit, there are those squeezed and concentrated, there are those that claim to have added vitamins or be extra good for you.

There are exotic mixes. And there are juice drinks - usually about 50 per cent water plus added sugar and flavourings.

There are juices that will wake you up at the start of the day and others that are a pleasant alternative to booze. We have tested them all and are now brimming over with Vitamin C.

This year, the nanny government is going to be persuading us to eat our five portions of fruit and veg a day. A glass of fruit juice counts as one.

(All prices are per litre unless stated otherwise)

OUR ALL-DAY FAVOURITES

* COPELLA Apple and Elderflower, £1.69

Pure juice with 99 per cent apple and just one per cent elderflower, but that's enough to give a delicious delicate flavour. Fine at any time of day.

* ASDA Orange and Grapefruit juice, 78p

With 65 per cent orange juice and 35 per cent grapefruit, it is sweet with just a bit of bite to make it interesting.

* GROVE organic apple juice, £2.29

Made from 1.5kg fresh fruit, no concentrate, no pulp, no nothing. Light, fresh, slightly cloudy. Delicious.

* LIDL Apple Juice, 67p for 1.5 litres

An unexceptional juice made from concentrate, but so ridiculously cheap that it is excellent value.

* FRUIT PASSION Fair Trade Tropical Juice, £1.09

This is 75 per cent orange juice with pineapple, apple, mango and banana. Excellent flavour, a bit sweet but still with some sharpness. The bonus is that you know the people who produce it are getting a decent deal - and there's the story of one of them on the carton.

* MARKS & SPENCER Pressed Pear Juice with a hint of ginger, £2.29

It's 65 per cent pear juice, 30 per cent apple juice, with apple puree, ginger and nutmeg

An interesting flavour and definitely different. Even in a chilled drink, the ginger was quite warming.

EXTRA SHARP TO WAKE YOU UP

* Tropicana Sanguinello, £1.79

Squeezed from red oranges, this is really sharp. On a good day it's wonderful and really wakes up the system. On a bad day it could curdle your insides.

* Princes Organic Grapefruit Juice, £2.29

Excellent clean taste.

FOR THOSE WITH A SWEET TOOTH

* Marks & Spencer Apple and Mango Juice, £1.99

84 per cent apple juice, 16 per cent mango puree.

Thick and slurpy and very mango-y.

* ALDI DEL RIVO Apple and Mango, £1.29

85 per cent apple juice, 15 per cent mango puree

Very thick and sweet.

* DEL MONTE Orange, Peach and Apricot, 95p

Good flavour.

* SAINSBURYS Freshly Squeezed orange juice drink with raspberry puree, £2.49

Although this has freshly squeezed orange juice, it is more than half water and has added sugar. Very thick and gloopy.

* OCEAN SPRAY orange and cranberry, £1.85

32 per cent orange juice, 10 per cent cranberry juice, the rest water, sugar, etc.

* TROPICANA TROPICS Orange, Kiwi and Passion fruit, £1.69

This tastes overwhelmingly of pineapple which is not surprising as it's 23 per cent pineapple as against four per cent kiwi fruit.

NEVER AGAIN

* TESCO Pineapple and Coconut Juice Drink, 89p

Mainly water but 40 per cent pineapple and one per cent coconut, it also contains sweetened condensed skimmed milk. Is this part of your new year health kick? Worst of all, it tastes disgusting.

* DEL MONTE New Zealand Kiwi Fruit, £1.18

Only seven per cent kiwi fruit, only 40 per cent fruit juice of any kind - the rest is water, sugar and chlorophyll which could explain its ghastly green colour. "Tastes like Twister lollies" said one tester.

For Roald Dahl parties only.

* PROVIVA strawberry juice with probiotic, 99p

This contains probiotic bacteria known as Lactobacuillus plantarum 299v, which - they say - can play an important role in the gut's defence mechanism. Well, maybe. But this drink also contains eight per cent sugar, salt, thickeners, flour and flavouring. In a juice drink?

It tastes of cheap, melted, strawberry ice lollies and we thought it was utterly disgusting.

* WELCH'S White Grape and Peach, £1.67

60 per cent fruit juice, five per cent peach, the rest is water, sugar etc, "Captures the full delicious fresh fruit taste". So why do they have to add flavouring?