Free lunches, Antioxidants, & "Wonder Juice du Jour"

POM Wonderful, LLC recently offered to mail me a free box of POM juice-related products for review on my blog.  I wasn't planning to blog the story, but after reading a POM review this morning by another blogger, I thought I'd write about my very different way to approach the same situation.

First, I did a little research online.  8 oz of POM juice costs around $4.99 in some high-end venues, has the equivalent of 34 grams of sugar (1 teaspoon of sugar is 15 grams), 430 grams of potassium (a banana has 560 gms.), and not much else... not even Vitamin C.

The juice is praised by its makers for having "antioxidants," but I knew that there were many other sources of antioxidants found in the fruit and vegetable kingdom, and a little more research showed that pomegranates didn't even make the "USDA's Top 20" list (here and more interesting info,  here and here).

Then, onwards to find out what Dr. McDougall has to say about juices:  here's an article of note.  Essentially, he's pointing out that you'd do better with fresh fruits and not the intense sugar effects of juices, that a lot of other natural benefits won't be in the juice, and that no large mega-doses of antioxidants really deal with or correct the true sources/problems/ravages of the Standard American Diet anyway.

Finally, (me again), the juice is flash pasteurized (heated to a temperatures between 160 and 165 degrees F for 15 to 30 seconds).  That juice is now just filtered cooked fruit.  But think about it:  what might have been lost or "devitalized" in that process nutritionally? 

So, my final thoughts were: 

(1) would I want that much sugar hitting my system that fast? no...(try "Stash's" excellent Pomegranate Raspberry Green Tea, instead... $3 will get you 18 tea bags for 144 oz. of tea)

(2) for the same cost I could purchase much more in terms of healthy antioxidants by spending the same amount on whole fresh fruit, vegetables, legumes (#1, 3, and 4 on the list!), etc.

(3) I can get more potassium from a single banana (at $.59/lb.)

(4) in the case of say, Acai juice (another "wonder juice du jour," and surprisingly high in fat, btw) there might be "free trade issues," don't know about pomegranates, and

(5) for the same price I could juice two pints of blueberries or strawberries, if I really want juice, and know that it's raw, still teeming with enzymes, fiber (should I chose so), and those myriad of gifted ingredients that promote and protect life.

But, $4.99 for cooked fruit juice in an 8 oz. bottle?  Nahhh.... even though it might taste "gud," I can't recommend it economically or nutritionally and be honest (cute bottle though).  So, I politely turned down POM Wonderful's offer.  Not all that "wonderful."

...and maybe there really is no such thing as a free lunch(!)

Comments

[Suzanne]

Your analysis is very helpful! I received the same offer from POM Wonderful and haven't replied to them yet. I'm not a juice drinker (unless it's freshly squeezed) and I wondered about whether there is any substance behind the hype, e.g., how healthy this juice really is. :-)

[Yeah, I was surprised at how little info was really available. I'm aware of one major study (which I think they funded) comparing other juices to pomegranate in terms of Prostate Cancer. It's not clear how valid it was and not worth my time to investigate.

Biggest issue for me is/was: what amount of what antioxidants are in POM? That would enable comparison with whole foods.

There's a lot of hype on their website, though (hey! it's Kosher! Since when wasn't a pure juice NOT Kosher?)

Oh well! To each his/her own... thanks for the feedback! Best, Mark]

[peter]

Unfortunately I don't think too many people will analyse the whole product as you do. Instead the company use words like 'antioxidant' without that really meaning much. Somehow I don't think they are all that eager to promote that the juice is cooked. Isn't juice supposed to be freshly squeezed? Me, I just stick to the whole fruit with all of nature's goodies coming in its own colourful package.

[We agree completely, Peter... I also think it's a bit of a scam that a lot of so-called "health promoting companies" do, whether on purpose or not, to peddle their wares.

It's surprising how difficult it can be to find out what's actually in some of these products. POM does provide some info on nutrition, but there's a helluva lot of slickly produced hype on their website. I gotta believe promoting a juice as "gluten-free" is a bit of a stretch (when's the last time we've seen wheat gluten in a juice?). But then, there really isn't that much to the product and maybe they've been studying the campaigns of Pepsi-Cola and Coca-Cola!

Thanks for the feedback.... Mark]