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If This Juice Is Made From Strawberries, Where's The Naturally Occurring Vitamin C?

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John read our post yesterday about Naked Juice's decision to remove vitamins and herbal stuff from some of their product line, and forwarded us a response he got from the company a month ago. His question: if Strawberry Kiwi Kick contains 14 strawberries, why does the nutritional label say it contains 0% vitamin C? The answer is a good reminder of the difference between fresh food and food that's been processed, conveniently packaged, and wrapped up in some healthy-looking branding.

John writes:

I saw your article on the Naked Juice Kiwi drink and thought I'd share this email I received in a response to my question about a month ago.

My Question: I'm a little confused about your strawberry kiwi kick drink. The label says it contains 14 strawberries however the nutritional label says 0% of your daily vitamin C. I'm fairly certain a cup of straberries contain at least 100% of Vitamin C

Their response:

We're happy to answer your question about the vitamin content in our strawberry kiwi kick Naked Juice, particularly vitamin C.

While strawberries are a good source of Vitamin C, some of the Vitamin C content is lost during pasteurization, and oxidation after packaging is a factor. Also, the vitamin content listed on the package needs to be valid through the Enjoy by date and through testing, and the amount of vitamin C content has been negligible and labeled in accord with FDA guidelines.

If it's Vitamin C you're after, our Superfood smoothies have added boosts and our Power-C Machine contains 250% of your daily recommended Vitamin C per 8 oz. serving. To see our entire selection of Superfoods, please visit the following web address:[link]

(Photo: sigusr0)

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54
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What's the point of a heatlhy drink if it doesn't contain vitamins? Just give me a damn chocolate shake. At least I know it has protien!

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Sigh. Just avoid processed foods alltogether,people. Your tummeis will thank you in the end...


teh heh... THE END.

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Maybe they use strawberry stems?

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There is such a thing as TOO much VitaminC to take in....250% in an 8 oz serving!!!??? Seems like a lot more than is healthy.

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@chrisexv6: Too much Vitamin C means overdosing, and 250% or even 1000% of the daily recommended ammount (A minimum for good health) does not mean an unhealthy amount.

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@chrisexv6: There's no danger with excess water soluble minerals; you just pee them out of your system.

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Vitamin C is actually water-soluble, and this won't stay in your system that long, even if you ingest a ton of it. In regards to its health effects, there are entire books that could be written (and have been) on studies involving vitamin C dating back to the 60s, and even earlier. Needless to say, I don't think any general consensus about how much is too much as really been made as of yet.

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@chrisexv6: Vitamin C pills frequently have something like 8333%. I recall hearing amounts that high can cause kidney stones, but 250% is fine.

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@AlteredBeast: Not sure who ever claimed juice was a "healthy" drink. I think that myth (juice== healthy) was debunked at least 2 decades ago.

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hmmm.... this makes me want to pay $3.50 for a small bottle of juice even less than I did before.

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250% of the daily recommended amount of vitamin C is the equivalent of approximately 3 oranges. Not exactly a major overdose problem there.

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@kjm0606: Fresh juice is always good for you. 100% Juice from concentrate is still very nutritious, but it loses some of its vitamins. 100% Juice in the bottle loses about half of its nutrients.

Still, juice contains a lot of sugar, even when it's 100% juice. You might want to just eat the apple.

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@AlteredBeast: Uh, where's the evidence that adding vitamins makes something healthy?

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@lincolnparadox: No, it's not. The fibers in the actual fruit is what separates something nutritious from a bunch of sugar in your stomach. The way your body processes it is different. Juice is like soda with vitamins.

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I really don't want any Vitamin C in my drinks.

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Modern day Strawberries concern, it seems like they have been mutated. The oversized ones, the two berries stuck together. I don't know if I like GMO strawberries.

In the wild most strawberries are small not this monster berries.

Funk that!

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@chrisexv6:

Vitamin C is water soluble, so it'd be rather hard to get dangerous amounts. Vitamins A, D, E and K are fat soluble, and it's much easier to potentially overdose on them, mind you it's still rather unlikely.

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@chrisexv6:

There's always Zipfizz for your vitamin OD'ing needs - nearly 42,000% of B12!

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@WatchOutNow: In the wild, many ancestors of the fruits and fruiting vegetables that we eat are small, it has been human selection over time that has built up the apple from the small crab apple, beefsteak tomatoes from the cherry size ancestor, no GMO required.

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@youbastid: Or in this case, juice is like soda.

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@bologna_wallet: Agreed. Though I've gotten hives before when I was chugging about a gallon a day of OJ (I was sick and it was very appealing).

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There is a difference between natural flavor and artificial flavor.
Also, there is something in common between them. They are both "fake/artificial" flavor.

If you get... let's say apple juice, the box may say "natural flavor". This is miss leading, because you think that it's the flavor of the apple, but in reality its engineered taste molecule to match the same one as the real fruit. As for artificial flavor simply means that the flavor is not matching correctly.

See it this way, if the apple "taste molecule" is a circle.
Natural flavor would be a taste molecule of the same size and exact same shape.

Artificial flavor would be one that resembles it... so let's say a hexagon instead of a circle. Therefore the taste is similar but not the same.

We all know that 2 apples doesn't really taste the same. This idea of this is that you get the same taste of the juice between packages. Also, it allows you to give you the taste of real apple juice all by not buying any apples. That increase profit. And artificial flavor is significantly less expensive to produce, for a similar taste.

If your juice says either, that explains why you have no vitamins.

Pretty crazy stuff, no?

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@bologna_wallet: too much vitamin C can interfere with birth control pills though, so for some people that could be considered a danger

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@bologna_wallet:
Bingo. You do pee out vitamin C that is in excess of what your body can use.


And to those noting that many vitamin C supplements contain a couple thousand percent of your daily requirement, there's some logic behind that. Your body has a harder time absorbing nutrients in tablets than, say, liquid form. Higher concentrations in tablets help ensure your body is able to absorb as much as it needs before it passes through your digestive system.


At least, this is my understanding.

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Vitamin C is very interesting from a taxonomical point of view. Generally speaking most animals are able to synthesize it, except for man and other higher primates, guinea pigs, bats, some fish, and many birds.

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@Oddfool:


It is impossible to actually *overdose* on Vitamin C, as the only amount absorbed is the amount your body will use, any excess will simply be expelled as waste.

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@chrisexv6:


You'd have a rough time with C.C. Lemon, then. 2000% of the USRDA for Vitamin C.

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@bologna_wallet: Not all of it comes out in urine. A small amount crystalizes. For someone with a normal diet this isn't an issue as the crystals are so small that they are passed without notice or disolve back into solution.

However, for people that go crazy and consume suplements, the crystals become seeds for kidney stones which they get to enjoy in the future.

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@WraithSama: tablet form or liquid form is not the issue, since the tablets will dissolve into liquid in your digestive system. The factor is that naturally occurring sources of vitamins and minerals (i.e. from food sources) have a higher bioavailability (more readily absorbed into the body) because foods stay in your system longer (i.e. fruit is fibrous and pills are not) and because of other micronutrients that aid in nutrient absorption. So 100% of Vitamin X from a Wumpus Fruit will usually be more nutritious than a 100% USRDA vitamin supplement. Vitamin E is a good example, where foods high in Vitamin E are clinically proven to improve X, Y, Z, but studies involving vitamin E in supplement form are inconclusive.

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@GoodBytes: Not even. A lot of natural and artificial flavors are the EXACT SAME molecule, no circle/hexagon, just circle/circle, only one is derived from natural sources, and the other is derived by chemical means. This usually results in artificial flavorings being more pure than natural ones. For example, take apple flavor, assuming its even derived from apples. The apples need to be pressed, then strained, then you need to remove water, sugars, fiber, etc. etc. from that juice to isolate the particular organic compounds that are responsible for apple taste, then package that. For artificial flavors, you start with smaller chemical compounds (that are all extremely pure), then react them together to make the desired compound. Spin it to get just the ones you want, and you're done. No excess organic "gunk" to deal with.

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So with no real vitamins can naked juice be still considered a serving of fruit?

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@esd2020:
well you can avoid things like scurvy for one

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@Jeremy Milum: does that mean i can just eat guinea pigs instead of oranges?

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@chrisexv6: Also keep in mind that these percentages represent the percentage of your daily *requirement* usually based on a 2,000 calorie diet. They don't even come close to comparing to your tolerance. According to the FDA, 100% of your daily requirement is approximately 90 mg (varies based on body mass). Overdose symptoms (kidney stones, jaundice) occur around 100 grams in most people. If you consume 100 grams of vitamin C before your body can urinate the excess, you'll probably have other problems first... from the ascorbic acid in your digestive system or the food that the vitamin C was contained in, if any.

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@Cybrczch:


Exactly. Look at what maize originally started as...really tiny little cobs that were practically inedible. Native Americans seletively bred maize into what we recognize today as corn. It's all GMO...it's just that one version of GMO takes longer than the other. Essentially nothing that we eat today isn't GMO.

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@cuchanu: however, $30-40 for a blender? Awesomeness. The taste is so much better, too. The biggest problem I have is that fresh fruits are almost always expensive (I've thought about trying freeze-dried), so I only go at it when I'm already sick.

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@ludwigk: so, wait, artificial flavors are often what would be left in the natural fruit if you took all of the good things out of it? ...and the world wonders why we are fat, sick, and have so many bad restaurants...

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@Elcheecho: no. It does mean you could eat raw seal, instead, though (IIRC, animals like that were how the Eskimos got their vitamins, including C). Yum.

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I get that vitamins dissipate over time, but why would I choose Naked Juices over similarly priced (and much higher vitamin content) than Odwalla?

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@ludwigk: @ ludwigk : that would be extremely expensive if what you say is true. It would just be cheaper to make apple juice normally.. meaning swish and basic filter... like the more expensive apple juice that you find at the supermarket.

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@WatchOutNow: Wild strawberries, besides being really small, taste horrible.

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@WatchOutNow: They are indeed mutants, they're polyploid. Perfectly natural mutants, of course.

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@GoodBytes: ludwigk is right. It's perfectly possible for you to synthesise the exact same molecule you find in the real plant, and it is much purer and exposes you to less contaminants. Extracting pure flavour compounds from plants is incredibly wasteful (like growing cows to just eat the tongues) and involves an environmentally-unfriendly series of solvent extractions.

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Poster GoodBytes just gave me information that makes my head hurt, but I say THANK YOU!!!!!!!

BEN, THAT IS AN ARTICLE FOR 'IST AND REPORTS.

A list of what every term on packaging means across every sector;
food
clothing
building materials
home furnishings
appliances
etc....

could be a pulitzer in it for you

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@GoodBytes: Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation gives an excellent overview of the "difference" between natural and artificial flavors. It's definitely worth a read.

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@Elcheecho:

@Elcheecho: nope, guinea pigs are like us, they cannot make it, they have to eat foods that contain it. so pass them an orange slice ;)

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I suppose the answer here is to spend your $3 on a pound of strawberries (which is about 3-4 servings) instead of a 12 oz. juice, which you will imbibe in just one sitting. Not to mention it's far better for you to eat fresh fruit than processed juice.