Thursday, May 21, 2009

Is that right? Juicy juice for brain development

Nestle's new Juicy Juice Fruit Juice Beverage features 16 mg of the nutrient DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) per serving. A big blue banner across the front of the package screams, "Brain Development," while the smaller type just above the banner says, "DHA -- A Building Block for"...

But in this instance, trumpeting DHA's brain-development capacity seems like a way to hawk a product that otherwise has very little nutritional value. My own pediatrician years ago steered me away from fruit juices -- even "100 percent" fruit juices such as Juicy Juice -- because they're essentially empty calories. An article in the journal Pediatrics last year lumped 100-percent fruit juices in with sodas as culprits in American kids' increasing tendency toward overweight. This particular Juicy Juice product has added water to keep the calories-per-ounce down, but except for a bit of potassium and the Vitamin C that's added to Juicy Juice, this "fruit juice beverage" has little to recommend it, nutrition-wise.

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