I try to maintain a pretty balanced diet, with an emphasis on the intake of fruits and vegetables, and then other things (such as proteins and fats) depending on which stage of my weekly fitness circuit I am on.

I really really like juice, and about a year or so ago I came across Naked Juice. It has all the usual BS about providing spiritual healing or whatever, and some of them include weird supplements, but I was attracted to them because 1) I think they are delicious, 2) several of them have up to 30g of protein (an essential part of my recovery cycle), and 3) they claim to contain a plethora of entire fruits. SEE HERE

What I am wondering is if anyone is familiar with juices such as these. Are the content claims valid? I mean, I totally understand how it could contain an entire pureed mango or something, but the ingredients are kind of unclear, and I’m wondering if they are just claiming that there is the same nutritional value that you would get from the equivalent fruit. Which would be a little bit different than stating the juice actually contained the fruit/vegetable itself.

Are the content claims valid?

I’ve never seen any evidence to the effect and one needs to be suspicious of some of the so-called “supplements” anyway as most of them fall under the “These claims have not been evaluated by the FDA” catagory.

If you like the stuff, that’s fine, but if you want to get the same thing for a far better price and get it fresh, all you need is a juicer or blender to make it the way you like it, when you like it, and to your own recipe. It’s just as good, and it doesn’t come with any hokey claims which haven’t been tested.

...and it won’t be overpriced!

...and it won’t be overpriced!

There is that and my wallet approves of avoiding anything overpriced.

My big gripe however is with a lot of the so-called supplements. A lot of the claims out there have never been tested and what has been tested on occasion doesn’t inspire confidence. At best, most are ineffective and some are downright dangerous. Megadoses of vitamins for example, such as vitamin A, which is toxic.

I use a multivitamin supplement myself, but mostly because my diet is the sort of thing which is what I consume on the run, and it’s only with an eye towards dealing with any shortfalls which go with that territory, and not every day either. Since the body tends to simply excrete what it really doesn’t need, wolfing down all those extra pills just means I’m whizzing out and brilliant yellow and expensive stream of urine whenever I’m sending my “E-mail To Congress!”

Yeah, I make a lot of smoothies at home, but that can be pretty time consuming. Also, I travel often for work (which involves long stays in a backcountry setting) and often times need to resupply without access to fresh fruit and/or a blender, so bottled juices are a great halfway solution.

I’m pretty sure that as far as basic nutrients the Naked and Odwalla juices are as good as any juices, I have just been wondering specifically about them claiming to contain “1 entire mango, 23 strawberries, and 1.5 apples.” or whatever.

I suppose you could buy that yourself, puree or juice it, mix it all together, drink it, then compare.

Dead Monky - 13 April 2011 03:05 PM

I suppose you could buy that yourself, puree or juice it, mix it all together, drink it, then compare.

You’re right.

I’m pretty sure that as far as basic nutrients the Naked and Odwalla juices are as good as any juices, I have just been wondering specifically about them claiming to contain “1 entire mango, 23 strawberries, and 1.5 apples.” or whatever.

Give it a shot yourself and let us know what the results of the experiment are. Try the same thing with their whole line. It might be messy but you at least get to drink the results!

I tried naked once, I think it was Mighty Mango, it was tasty and thick.  I don’t think it had any nastiness in it.  But for that price, I think I rather buy a couple of actual mangoes and bananas.

Do you know a cool thing to do with strawberries?  You put them in a bowl and microwave for a minute or two, and then you have a sauce for… everything!  Naked.

Naked: