Juice or fruit flavored sugar water? How do you know?
- Michelle Wood: SWCD
- February 1, 2010
- 656
Grocery stores aren’t that big (usually), so it’s only a few minutes until I reach the soda/water/other beverage aisle. There are more fruity drinks. Then when I get to the refrigerated section, there are more even more fruity drinks.
Some of the products I have seen have simple names, like apple juice or orange juice. Some have fancy names like Strawberry Passion Awareness, Citrus Punch and Mango Mania – or to confuse matters more, some have names like Purify or Bliss. They have colorful containers, fun-shaped bottles and labels showing artistically arranged fruit.
The question is - are these beverages all fruit juice? How do I choose the best juice?
There are a few things you can look for to answer these questions.
First, look for the words “100 percent juice” on the label. Sometimes you can judge a book, or in this case, a beverage, by its cover. Federal law requires manufacturers to identify the percentage of juice in their beverages. One thing to be aware of is that some companies may make “100 percent juice” beverages as well as beverages that may contain very little juice.
Manufacturers also give you another tip about the content of the beverage on the label. When the name of a product contains the words such as “beverage,” “cocktail,” “-ade,” “drink,” or “blend,” it contains less than 100 percent juice.
Second, go for the juice that packs the biggest “nutritional bang” for your buck. Orange, grapefruit, prune and pineapple juices offer a lot more vitamins and minerals than apple, grape and pear juices. One six-ounce serving of orange juice supplies more than a day’s supply of vitamin C.
Third, fortification of beverages. Not a milk drinker? You may want to try calcium-fortified orange juice. Vitamins and minerals added, in reasonable quantities, to 100 percent juice can’t hurt. On the other hand, a highly fortified beverage that is mostly high-fructose corn syrup and water is no different than swallowing your vitamin pill in the morning with a few tablespoons of sugar.
A diet high in fruits and vegetables can help decrease your risk of high blood pressure, cancer and maybe even heart disease. MyPyramid.gov recommends eating a wide variety of fruits and vegetables a day. This isn’t too hard when you consider that a six-ounce glass of juice counts as one serving of fruit.
The next time you take a trip to the grocery store, take a good look at the label before you buy that fruit beverage. See if you can find the percentage of fruit juice in the product.
Have a question you would like answered? Call 330-674-3015, e-mail shumaker.68@osu.edu, or write to OSU Extension, Holmes County, 10 S. Clay Street, Suite 102, Millersburg 44654. Kate Shumaker, MS, RD, LD, is an Extension Educator, Family and Consumer Sciences, for Ohio State University Extension.