Photo by: M. KomolovaOn Friday, Travis posted a video from the Rachael Ray show and briefly discussed some of the wildly inaccurate dialogue exchanged between the host and her guest regarding acai berry juice, or “the healthiest drink you can get.”
Soon after making the post, Travis and I headed to the local grocery store to get some lunch. As we were passing by the juice section, I was struck by a novel product with the most unoriginal name: Super Juice. Upon close inspection, we realized the-so-called Super Juice produced by Canadian company, Arthur’s, was simply jumping on the antioxidant juice bandwagon – made popular by the aforementioned acai berry juice.
Just to be certain the consumer understood the “super” quality of the juice, which came in either a pomegranate or a wild blueberry flavor, the word ‘antioxidant’ is written in capitals on the front of the bottle.
But the fun only starts there.
On the back of the juice bottle, we, the naïve consumers, learned that 100% pomegranate juice is a “Medicinal Ingredient.” Available without a prescription, and at a grocery store – imagine that!
Oddly, no other nutritional information was listed anywhere on the bottle.
Instead of caloric content, quantity of sugar, or any of that useless information, the makers of Super Juice thought it would be more instructive to outline the “Recommended Purpose” of said juice:
“Arthur’s Fresh 100% Natural Pomegranate not-from-concentrate juice provides protection at the cellular level due to the reduction of damage caused by free radicals. Source of naturally occurring antioxidants for the maintenance of good health.”
Disregarding the sentence fragment in the description, who knew drinking juice had become so sophisticated?
And if you are still skeptical of the medical powers of Super Juice to cure all ails, the following is provided under the ‘Recommended Dose’ heading:
“Drink 250ml daily or as prescribed by a health care practitioner.”
So you do need a prescription, after all! More importantly, if health care practitioners are prescribing 100% pomegranate juice, it must be good for your health!
Because our curiosity generally gets the best of us, Travis and I each bought a bottle of Super Juice, which was on sale for $3 per 250ml bottle.
The best way I can describe the taste of my juice (pomegranate flavor) is that it is similar to wine that has been sitting out too long. I had one sip and I had all the antioxidants I needed for a lifetime.
In all, Arthur’s Super Juice resembles actual medicine in one general way: it tastes foul.
Peter
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Darya Pino Said,
He he he. Hilarious! Love the BS calling lately.
Posted on February 2, 2009 12:57 PM
Dr. Sean Wharton, MD, PharmD, FRCPC Said,
Loved this blog, nice call Peter, it sounds like Arthur is out to make some Super money off of the unsuspecting public.
Posted on February 2, 2009 11:50 PM
Evita Said,
As skeptical as I am of all processed foods and labels, this is actually as good as it gets where juices and especially Pomegranate juices are concerned.
The reason there is no nutritional info is because products that have an active compound in them that is considered a nutriceutical are considered health foods and do not therefore require the nutritional info. While I would still love to see one, the truth is the nutritional info is not much different here than by eating the fruit itself. It may have slightly increased sugar and slightly decreased fiber but that is it.
For more info on how to tell a good pomegranate juice from a poor quality one you might be interested in checking out what Mike Adams wrote in his analysis of these super juices:
http://www.naturalnews.com/phototour_pomegranate_juice_1.html
Posted on March 16, 2009 6:26 PM
Kyle Said,
This juice does not pretend to do anything extraordinary for your body. It does not try to scam people like the "magic" powers of the acai berry. All this juice claims is that it is healthy and an excellent source of antioxidants. Yes is it mildly overpriced but you cannot find any cheap prices for a natural pomegrante juice.
p.s. The other juice is wild blueberry, it is NOT blackberry
Posted on March 31, 2009 7:19 PM
Travis Saunders, MSc Said,
Hi Kyle,
Thanks for pointing out the blueberry/blackberry mistake, it's disappointing that neither of us caught that earlier!
I agree with you that this is in a completely different category than the acai berry. However, in my opinion, calling fruit juice a "medicinal ingredient" does seem to insinuate that it does extraordinary things for your body, and is quite different from merely claiming to be a healthy food choice.
Travis
Posted on March 31, 2009 10:07 PM