Fancy fruit drinks...are they really an alternative to real fruit?

[AnonChick]

I checked one random Odwalla blend: carrot apple berry. One serving is 12 ounces and 140 calories. It consists of pureed/juiced apple (1), 3/4 cup blackberries, 3-1/5 cup strawberries, 1-1/4 cup raspberries, 6.5 carrots (not cups of chopped carrots - that's 6 and a half carrots), 1/5 lemon, and 1/6 of a beet.

So basically you're looking at more than the recommended daily amount of fruit, and around two full servings of vegetables, all packed into 12 ounces of drinkable liquid.

Of course, the fruit and vegetables are part of a daily recommendation, in part because of the fiber. But there's only 1 gram of fiber in total, in that entire 12 ounce container. So now, we're down to just around zero recommended amount of fruit and veggies. It has 32 mg of carbs, which is pretty big for a single drink - that's 11% of the RDA. The scary part of this, is that of those 32 mg of carbs, 31 of them are sugar. HUGE amount of sugar in a single drink.

It is also more than twice the RDA of vitamin A, which wouldn't be a bad thing if it included a little zinc to off-set it. But it doesn't. You wouldn't want to drink this more than once or twice a week. It's high in potassium, and fairly low in sodium. This is good on both counts.

But the complete lack of fiber and overabundance of sugar, makes it little better than a 4-ounce glass of Welch's grape juice or Snapple lemonaid.

Not to mention, if you can actually LIKE this stuff, then there's no reason why you can't like eating strawberries, raspberries, carrots, blackberries, and apples. If there's some medical reason why you need to be on a low-fiber diet, I'd say this would be great in small doses. Other than a medical reason though, you'd be better off ditching the drink and eating the fruit.

[chiroptera]

Originally Posted by weltschmerz

How much of the natural fibre is left in the fruity drinks?

Not much at all. Zero, I think.
But I eat a very plant and legume based diet otherwise (I get teased for "eating like a hippy" LOL) so I am pretty sure I get a ridiculous amount of fiber on a daily basis. I don't eat much processed food or soda or sugary foods generally. I do eat meat and fish but in moderation, not daily...I often go days without eating meat.

And two weeks ago at age 55 I had a physical which included blood draws to check liver and kidney function, cholesterol and whatever...perfectly fine. And I'm thin...well, OK, not a size four but between a 6 and 8 and pretty active. So I'm not worried about my overall health and don't pay any attention to calories or micronutrients or percentages of this and that.

I was wondering about the possible shortage of fruit and berries, so GrandviewGloria, thank you for that insight!

I do eat fruit and berries and such, just not daily. Not even close to daily, actually, especially in winter. But I do enjoy the fruit blend juices and tend to keep several on hand for a cup or two per day.

I think I will make more of an effort to eat fruits and berries; I'll dust off my blender for fruit shakes.

[Dayton Sux]

I sort of "inherited" a manual heavy duty (this sucker weights a ton) juice press, and have been using it make my own juice. This only works for citrus, though...oranges, lemons, limes, grapefruit.

I dont use store-bought juice...well, ok, this guava juice from an Indian market (but imported from Holland, of all places). I use this stuff, or some of that Italian grapefruit soda from Trader Joes, to add a bit of sweetness to the citrus stuff, and then seltzer water to cut it a bit.

I really have no idea about the fiber content or health benefit, but doing this from scratch is a good way of controlling for flavor, where store-bought stuff tends to be too sweet for my taste.

[AnonChick]

Originally Posted by Dayton Sux

I sort of "inherited" a manual heavy duty (this sucker weights a ton) juice press, and have been using it make my own juice. This only works for citrus, though...oranges, lemons, limes, grapefruit.

I dont use store-bought juice...well, ok, this guava juice from an Indian market (but imported from Holland, of all places). I use this stuff, or some of that Italian grapefruit soda from Trader Joes, to add a bit of sweetness to the citrus stuff, and then seltzer water to cut it a bit.

I really have no idea about the fiber content or health benefit, but doing this from scratch is a good way of controlling for flavor, where store-bought stuff tends to be too sweet for my taste.

Is this the kind of juice press you have? I worked as a bar-back (what they now call barristas) at a coffee house (this was before Starbucks), and we had this monster set up near the prep area. We made our own chocolate whipped cream from scratch in an industrial mixing bowl too...I loved making juices for customers.

Jupiter Large Commercial Juice Press | Free Shipping

[Dayton Sux]

^
...yes, something like that. Same concept though it looks different.