How to Choose Healthy Juices

Monday, 14 September 2009

How to Choose Healthy Juices

Juice isn't always healthy. It's almost always filled with sugar, very little real fruit, and a lot of chemicals. However, juice is a fantastic way to get your 5 a day, especially if you don't like the texture of fruits or can't afford/find fresh berries and such during the winter.
Always read your labels. Reading the ingredients label is the key step here. Look for anything like "sugar," "cane sugar," or sugar alternatives. Even splenda isn't that great to have in your juice! Avoid juices with these things added!
Look closer at the ingredients. A berry juice will likely have apple juices and pear juices mixed in. This is especially true for Acai berry juice (which is quite tasty) because apples and pears are really cheap fillers. Avoid berry juices with too much of these. Look for words like "puree" and avoid ones like "from concentrate." You don't want a juice made primarily of things from concentrate. You can tell if it is because it will be more watery than thick. A good fruit juice with be thick and "settle" at the bottom.
I have some of my favorite brands, and other ones that have a good reputation for providing quality, no sugar added juices:
Bolthouse Farms: The fruit purees contain a large amount of fruit per bottle and no added sugar. They do have concentrate from the cheap fruits (apples) but the ones you want all the benefits from (raspberries, blueberries, strawberries) are fresh purees.
Odwalla: This brand is very well known for their great juices. In fact, its one of the best.
Light V8 Splash: The light variety isn't half as bad as the regular, but you still get a lot of benefits.
Other notable mentions are POM Juice, and Naked. These are good, but not juices you want to drink a lot. They are quite expensive and you won't be getting your complete monies worth.
Even though brands like Juicy Juice, Tropicana, and a few others are really cheap, they contain fillers and concentrate. You would have to drink a lot of them to get even a fraction of the benefits that you do from a brand like Bolthouse farms.
Do you drink fruit juices? Which brands do you drink most often?

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Comments (18)

I drink Bolthouse Farms all the time! I love their protein drinks because they are completely vegan, natural, healthy, and delicious! Especially the vanilla chai tea one. But really, everything is good in moderation and if I wanted to have some goddamn hi-c fruit punch I would. Sorry.
- 9/14/2009 11:12 AM
- DeadXTendencies@xanga (message)
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I love Bolthouse Farms. I think they're much better than Odwalla.
I want to try Fruit2Day.
- 9/14/2009 11:42 AM
- methodElevated@xanga (message)
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i drink fuit juices =D well mainly watermelon juice! self made =]
- 9/14/2009 11:49 AM
- yuk_lui@xanga (message)
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I drink Naked juice (mostly to make smoothies, though) and Odwalla. I haven't heard of the rest.
- 9/14/2009 12:04 PM
- Morningstarrising@xanga (message)
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I drink mainly cranberry juice
- 9/14/2009 12:12 PM
- Princess_Sakurina@xanga (message)
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great info! i'll totally keep that in mind the next I go juice shopping :)
- 9/14/2009 12:19 PM
- NowAndForeverTonight@xanga (message)
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Bolthouse Farms, Naked, and Simply are the ones I buy the most. The Simply juices are the cheapest, but they only have a small selection. They make the best real apple juice for the price.
- 9/14/2009 12:23 PM
- Erika_Steele@xanga (message)
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If i am going to drink juices I tend to def watch out for carbohydrates and sugars considering I am diabetic and those have an affect on me. But usually when I choose I go with Tropicana 50. Which is their Orange Juice but 50% less sugar and calories so its equates to 10g of sugar per serving (8 fl oz) as compared to normal OJ which is 24g + per serving. Taste great.

Its really hard to find different juices with low sugar counts. I think healthy drinks are more geared toward calorie counters and fat content and def does not support "Diabetics"!
- 9/14/2009 1:59 PM
- smpTurbo@xanga (message)
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I drink Apple and Orange juice, with 0% sweetners/ sugar.
- 9/14/2009 3:35 PM
- nerdishh8D@xanga (message)
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Wait til you have PURE cranberry/cherry/blueberry juice. It literally burns your throat and makes you gag. Expensive as hell too.

But good for you, which is the only upside.
- 9/14/2009 4:45 PM
- krispylicious@xanga (message)
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i drink orange juice
- 9/14/2009 5:10 PM
- Peridot21@xanga (message)
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I really like Simply Orange and Simply Apple. I checked on the labels, and they all just say "100% juice not from concentrate" and that's good enough for me.
- 9/14/2009 5:11 PM
- Imnotcrazyjustinsane@xanga (message)
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I drink fruit juices like mango, orange, and peach all mixed together :)
- 9/14/2009 5:19 PM
- soniiuh@xanga (message)
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Ocean Spray 100% Cranberry Juice and Simply Orange.
- 9/14/2009 5:58 PM
- KySueO@xanga (message)
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@smpTurbo@xanga - My boyfriend is Diabetic. Usually only the juices with added sugars mess with his sugar levels. The ones with the natural sugars from fruit doesn't seem to change his glucose readings too much.
- 9/14/2009 8:40 PM
- cutesycharm@xanga (message)
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@methodElevated@xanga - Go to their website and get a $1 off coupon!
- 9/14/2009 8:40 PM
- cutesycharm@xanga (message)
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@cutesycharm@xanga - Yeah, its so odd. I don't really drink juice all that often but the normal kind tends to wreak havoc on the ol' BS levels but a die-kind of juice usually works well. Thanks for the reply!
- 9/14/2009 9:10 PM
- smpTurbo@xanga (message)
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Anything that would or could go into a juicebox is bad, I imagine.
- 12/1/2009 10:30 PM
- angelwingfive@xanga (message)
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