Kansas City Blog

The blog Consumerist has recently been poking some holes in the idea that Naked Juice is as natural and healthy as it claims to be. One astute reader noticed that the nutrition label for Strawberry Kick showed that it contained zero vitamin C, even though it supposedly contained 14 whole strawberries, a fruit packed with vitamin C. The company responded that the vitamin C is lost during pasteurization, but added that another Naked Juice flavor, Power-C Machine, has "added boosts" of vitamin C.

"Added boosts" is a fancy way of saying a food has been fortified -- artificially enhanced with dietary substances. (This is in no way natural, so how Power-C Machine remains "naked" is a mystery.) Fortified foods are nothing new -- think iodine in salt -- but only in the past five years have manufacturers really applied the idea to any and every food item they can (i.e., vitamin-fortified 7Up and marshmallows with collagen).

But is it all necessary?
The Wall Street Journal points out that processed fortified foods often fall flat of plain, simple, non-processed foods.

Since probiotics occur naturally in yogurts, consumers might be tempted to think that yogurts touting extra probiotics may escalate health benefits. But processing actually breaks down existing probiotic strains, and many of the lab-developed variants have little research to support their health claims ... Wonder Classic Calcium Fortified Enriched Bread may sound impressive, but one slice contains only 10% of the daily recommended value of the mineral -- a third of what's in a cup of low-fat milk.

Rather than depending on fortified foods, a better option is to take a daily multi-vitamin. It has all of the benefits without the calories.

It's also worth noting that for water-soluble vitamins such as C, B12, folic acid and riboflavin, extra dosages are essentially worthless. A body only needs so much vitamin C and doesn't waste energy processing or storing what it doesn't need. So in the Naked Power-C Machine, a good portion of that vitamin C will just pass through the body.

(Image via Flickr: SampleReality)