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| Spilling the truth |
17-Aug-2005 |
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The juice business is booming, but some of the claims about health benefits are beyond belief. By Dr Rosemary Stanton.
EVERY animal species except humans is content to quench their thirst with water. Humans drink water too, especially since clever marketers have made it socially desirable by selling it to us at about 2500 times the cost of water from the tap.
But mostly we prefer to flavour our water with tea, coffee or sugar, colour and flavour it with cordial for kids, and use various fruit or grains to convert it to alcoholic beverages.
The latest craze is to liquify wheatgrass and sell us a bright-green ‘shot’ which, it is claimed, will boost the immune system, reduce blood pressure, prevent tooth decay, cure psoriasis, purify the blood, combat toxins from cigarette smoke and heavy metals, and even stop your hair going grey. Internet sites also suggest it will cure cancer and undo the damage of a high-fat or high-protein diet.
Just 60mL of wheatgrass juice is supposed to have the nutritional value of 2kg of the freshest vegetables, with claims it is an excellent source of enzymes, amino acids, chlorophyll, vitamins A, B, C, E and K, as well as containing “82 out of the 92 minerals found in the soil”, including calcium, chlorine, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, sodium, sulphur, cobalt and zinc. Claims it contains vitamin B12 are hard to swallow, since this vitamin is confined to animal food or fermented products, but perhaps the most outrageous statement is that it is a valuable source of oxygen.
Claims for any nutrient can only be made if the recommended serving contains at least 10% of the daily recommended dietary intake (RDI) for that nutrient. I have no doubt that wheatgrass contains chlorophyll, although there is some doubt that humans actually need chlorophyll. But where actual numbers for nutrients in wheatgrass are available, the only valid claims would be that some brands are a source of vitamin C and beta carotene. It’s possible that some devotees do not realise that figures quoted for iron and vitamin E are in micrograms, whereas the RDI for these nutrients are in milligrams.
There’s also no way that a shot of wheatgrass juice could equal even one serve of most vegetables in fibre and nutrients, let alone the 2kg claimed.
Juice bars that sell wheatgrass juice also sell various other products, including fruit juices and smoothies, with optional ingredients that include St Johns wort, ginseng, ginkgo biloba, echinacea, citrin or green tea extract. When ordering these extras, you ask for the ‘stress relief’, ‘energiser’, ‘protector’, ‘skinny’ or the ‘vita-boost’“for those who want it all”.
The juices themselves are freshly made and you can choose your own combinations of various fruit and vegetables. They’re an excellent alternative to soft drinks and will certainly provide plenty of vitamins and other nutrients. Only the fibre is missing, but they are still a nutritionally sound choice.
But if you are hoping for a therapeutic effect from the herbal components, you may be sadly disappointed. The Australian Consumers’ Association took a closer look at the quantities used and found that there was little standardisation and, in most cases, it appeared that only insignificant quantities of biologically active compounds were included. This may be just as well because some herbal extracts that have biological activity need controlled doses and some can interact with medications.
So while the juices offer nutritional advantages, the herbal additions are an expensive placebo and those who claim citrin or other ingredients will help with weight reduction are downright deceptive.
One additive that could give a kick to juices is guarana. It’s a potent source of caffeine, and while most of us are aware that our daily coffee and tea contain caffeine, some people are unaware that the wake-up call they get from guarana is also due to caffeine. Guarana is unsuitable for children.
Action to rein in juice bar claims may be pending. In May this year, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission issued a statement that said it was concerned about the health claims accompanying many juice bar products and announced it would be monitoring juice bars. The ACCC stated that “the claims about certain ingredients may not exist, cannot be substantiated or, in fact, may adversely impact on a consumer or their diet”.
OTHER DRINKS
Liquid kilojoules easily slip under the radar, sometimes disguised as health drinks. This is the case with smoothies sold by juice bars.
For those who are very active, these products are fine because they combine fresh fruit with yoghurt and milk. But for those watching their weight, a juice bar smoothie may not be an ideal choice, mainly because the serving sizes are often large. Typical smoothies have about 2000kJ (and some can be as high as 3000kJ), which is the equivalent in energy content to a meal. By way of comparison, a hearty sandwich stuffed with salad and chicken has about 1300kJ.
Some smoothies sound good, sporting terms such as guilt-free and low-fat, but still include more than 6g of fat, most of it as saturated fat. They include low-fat milk but then add ice cream or frozen yoghurt that is not low fat. Sugar content (which includes the natural sugar present in fruit and milk) is around 80g in most products, rising to 120g in products for the brave-hearted.
The real problem with many of these drinks is super-sizing. A regular size is 650-700mL. Super-sizing often occurs in shopping centre food courts. Some of these drinks have kilojoule and fat levels that make smaller-sized smoothies look positively healthy.
Coffee shop chains are also offering large sizes, especially with take-away coffees and iced coffee or mocha. Few people think of excessive fat, sugar and kilojoules with drinks, but these products range in fat from 12g to 33g a serve and have between 34g and 67g of sugar. The 1445-2280kJ in each drink could easily contribute to excess weight.
WHY LIQUID KILOJOULES MATTER
Several studies show that consuming liquid kilojoules has no effect on the consumption of other food.
One year-long study of women in the English Midlands found that avoiding energy-containing drinks at and between meals was the behaviour most likely to have a beneficial effect on their weight loss.
Danish studies also report that sugar in drinks is more likely to produce weight gain than solid sugar in food because the liquid sugar kilojoules don’t seem to register on the brain’s satiety centre.
A study of 18-35-year-olds in the US found that participants who consumed a kilojoule-rich beverage at breakfast chose just as many kilojoules at lunch as those who had sparkling water at breakfast, while a Dutch study reported that when given similar flavoured yoghurt drinks with either high- or low-kilojoule counts before lunch, subjects did not compensate for the extra kilojoules they had consumed by choosing less at lunch.
RECIPE
Home-made banana smoothie
Serves one
A home-made smoothie is ideal when you (or your children) don't have time for a regular breakfast.
Ingredients
200mL skim milk
125mL low-fat vanilla yoghurt
1 banana
2 or 3 ice cubes
Method
Place ingredients in a blender and process until fluffy.
Nutritional information/serve
17g protein; 0.5g fat; 0g saturated fat; 45g carbohydrate; 2.5g dietary fibre; 490mg calcium; 1060kJ (250 calories).
Variations
Rockmelon: Substitute one piece of rockmelon (about 150g) for the banana.
Pawpaw: Substitute one piece of peeled pawpaw for the banana.
Berry: Substitute 1/2 punnet fresh blueberries or strawberries or 1/2 cup frozen berries for the banana.
Dr Stanton (PhD) is a leading nutritionist.
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Posted by Jim 26/05/2009 5:41:24 PM
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