The blog Consumerist has recently been poking some holes in the idea that Naked Juice is as natural and healthy as it claims to be. One astute reader noticed that the nutrition label for Strawberry Kick showed that it contained zero vitamin C, even though it supposedly contained 14 whole strawberries, a fruit packed with vitamin C. The company responded that the vitamin C is lost during pasteurization, but added that another Naked Juice flavor, Power-C Machine, has "added boosts" of vitamin C.
"Added boosts" is a fancy way of saying a food has been fortified -- artificially enhanced with dietary substances. (This is in no way natural, so how Power-C Machine remains "naked" is a mystery.) Fortified foods are nothing new -- think iodine in salt -- but only in the past five years have manufacturers really applied the idea to any and every food item they can (i.e., vitamin-fortified 7Up and marshmallows with collagen).
But is it all necessary?
The Wall Street Journal points out that processed fortified foods often fall flat of plain, simple, non-processed foods.
Since probiotics occur naturally in yogurts, consumers might beRather than depending on fortified foods, a better option is to take a dailytempted to think that yogurts touting extra probiotics may escalate
health benefits. But processing actually breaks down existing probiotic
strains, and many of the lab-developed variants have little research to
support their health claims ... Wonder
Classic Calcium Fortified Enriched Bread may sound impressive, but one
slice contains only 10% of the daily recommended value of the mineral
-- a third of what's in a cup of low-fat milk.
multi-vitamin. It has all of the benefits without the calories.
It's also worth noting that for
water-soluble vitamins such as C, B12, folic acid and riboflavin, extra
dosages are essentially worthless.
A body only needs so much vitamin C and doesn't waste energy
processing or storing what it doesn't need. So in the Naked Power-C
Machine, a good portion of that vitamin C will just pass through the
body.
(Image via Flickr: SampleReality)
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I've always been skeptical about fortified foods - how much of these nutrients are really being absorbed? What's wrong with whole foods and a few well chosen supplements, anyway? Personally I try to go whole as often as I can and take a daily C and multi-probiotic supplement. I work in marketing, so I understand functional foods marketing hype all too well. Even the name "functional" implies that you need it, it helps you function better. As you pointed out, not always true!
~ Anna M
blog.nutri-health.com
Meesha, you don't sound half-literate. This "G" person is being a sillyhead. Looks like they were set off somehow by your dead tree media commentary. I didn't realize it was such an inflamatory comment myself without their reaction, so thank you, G, for pointing out how the art of over-reaction is, indeed, not dead. Awesome. I can keep doing it myself...
I'm a fan of certain fortified foods...when Iwas non-dairy for all those years, I needed to get calcium in my diet however I was able, and the calcium-fortified orange juices were one of the ways I did it. Interesting info about the Naked Juice deal, though. I had no idea that pasteurization zapped fruits of their vitamin content! Huh...
sorry, mine wasn't based on anybody's hard work, I completely made it up and took my own photos.I would also like to apologize for being half-literate, I am still working on the other half, so the inane garbage I spout could be at least grammatically correct ( I am pretty sure my spelling is acceptable because I check it twice).
meesha, you "covered this story" did you? Really? Or did you spout some inane half literate garbage off the top of your head, without offering a single new fact, based on things you read courtesy of the hard work done by the good folks in the "dead tree media?"
There is a HUGE difference.
I am going to pull TKC on this and say that I covered this story before the dead tree media.
http://www.kcmeesha.com/2009/0...
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