“Two and half servings of fruit and vegetables in each glass.” “No Sugar Added.” “High in Fiber.” “Loaded with Antioxidants.” These are all healthy-sounding claims for fruit and vegetable juices and supplements, but are these fruits and veggies from a bottle really just as good as eating the real thing?
Products labeled “100% juice” are the only sources of pure fruit juice that will count towards your daily fruit intake. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) states that 1 cup of 100% fruit juice equals 1 cup of real fruit. This is important because the USDA recommends five servings of fruits and vegetables for average individuals and as many as nine for athletes. That can be a challenging amount for busy athletes to consume, and a 1:1 ratio with fruit juice can make life a lot easier. And by the way, "fruits and vegetables" means it's a total of five servings between the two, not five servings of each. For sedentary people, we recommend three servings of vegetables and two of fruit (generally more fiber, less sugar, fewer calories overall). For athletes, the ratio of fruit to vegetables is less of an issue because you're eating more food in total and rapidly burning simple sugars while you exercise.
“Made with real fruit juice” is not the same as "100% juice". A good example is the V8 Fusion Light juices which are lower-calorie versions of their full-juice drink. The Fusion Light drinks are only 50% juice (the rest is water and Splenda™). V8 Splash is not real fruit juice either. Glance at the ingredient label and you will see that the first two ingredients are water and high fructose corn syrup. The non-diluted V8 Fusion is 100% juice but is still misleading. The Blueberry Pomegranate version boasts that it contains a lot of antioxidants, and although pomegranates and blueberries are good sources of antioxidants, the product is mainly a “reconstituted vegetable juice blend” of potato, carrot, and tomato, with a little bit of pomegranate juice and a lot of vitamin fortification.
It’s also important to understand label claims. Manufacturers are allowed to put “structure and function” claims on the label with no actual evidence to back them up, as long as a specific disease is not mentioned. That’s why High Fiber V8 can claim “heart healthy” on the label but can’t actually say “helps prevent heart disease”. Because there is a link between a high-fiber diet and lower cholesterol levels, the manufacturer can simply add fiber to a product and make the claim. The problem is that the fiber added to juices is not the same as the fiber found in whole fruits, vegetables, and grains and scientists do not yet know if it functions the same way in the body. It’s better than Kool Aid, for sure, but eating whole fruits and vegetables still seems to be a better idea than depending entirely on juices for your fruit and vegetable requirements.
What about fruit concentrates and powders? You’ve seen the ads for Greens First and Juice Plus... their claims are based on clinical studies that use REAL fruits and vegetables to demonstrate that ingesting 5-9 servings of fruit and vegetables per day may prevent cancer and other disease. They will be the first to admit that eating the all-natural produce is best (they say so all over their websites), but they are also quick to say that their products serve as the next-best-thing. One of the first rules of nutrition is that the integrity of nutrients diminishes the more a food is processed (which includes grinding, blending, and dehydrating). We are not convinced that the nutrients in a fruit concentrate (which has had water removed) have not been damaged by processing or that the drying and grinding of produce into “powders” doesn’t alter the bioavailability of the antioxidants, polyphenols and other health-boosting ingredients naturally found in these foods.
If you still choose to use these substitutes for the real thing - particularly juices - it’s important to consider that they contain all the calories from the original fruits and vegetables, but without the bulk to satisfy your hunger. This is true even if you have your own juicer in your house (thanks, Jack Lalanne!), although at least with your own juicer you don’t have to worry about additional sugar, corn syrup, and calories. Overall, watch your serving sizes with fruit juices. Ounce for ounce most of them have as many calories as cola, up to 220 calories for 16 ounces. Yes, it's better for you than flavored carbonated water sweetened with corn syrup, but it's still a concentrated source of calories, too.
Bottom line: Consuming fruit and vegetables as juices or drinks is better than consuming no vegetables at all. Although we always prefer that athletes meet their daily requirements by eating fruits and vegetables instead of just drinking their juices, we understand people are busy and it’s not always possible to munch through those servings. Drinks like original V8, tomato juice, V8 Fusion, and the like are reasonably good substitutes because they are mainly blended fruits and vegetables (though some contain a lot of sodium, too). Be careful to read the labels on any fruit or vegetable juices, though, make sure they contain 100% real juice. And realize that it’s very easy to consume a lot of calories with fruit and vegetable drinks because they’ve removed the fiber that makes the whole foods more filling. And with the widespread availability of actual produce as well as high-quality fruit and vegetable drinks, there’s little need for concentrates and powders.
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