If you're a health enthusiast, then chances are you've come across Naked Drinks. After all, they claim to be packed with essential vitamins and minerals that can supposedly help improve your health. But before you grab one of those colorful bottles from the grocery shelves, let's take a closer look at what's inside.
What Exactly are Naked Drinks?
Naked drinks are fruit juices made by PepsiCo-owned company. They contain fruits such as kale, spinach, and carrots blended together into colorful fruity mixtures. These drinks come in different flavors like Green Machine - a mixture of apples, bananas and kiwi or Blue Machine - containing apple juice,mango purée, blackberry juice concentrate and blueberry purée.
According to their marketing campaign, these drinks promote healthy living by providing essential nutrients while avoiding added sugars and artificial preservatives commonly found in other commercial fruit juices.
The Claims on Nutritional Value
On examining the nutritional value content printed on some bottle labels , it looks pretty good- right beside an eye-catching image of vibrant-looking fruits riding bikes through mountains (Marketing alert!). For example:
Fruit punch
One 450ml serving has: Calories – 260 Protein – 2g Fat –0g Sugars – 63 g Fiber (dietary)– 1 g
Berry Blast
A typical nutrition per label states: Serving size is 15 fl oz(450 milliliters) Calories-340, Total fat-0 grams, Sodium-20 milligrams, Total carbohydrates--82 grams , total Sugar includes ~ 42% Added Sugars --69grams.
Well if I saw that only section alone without knowing any better about sugar consumption recommendations for daily intake would probably get me excited enough to think I'm doing myself some good, but hold your horses, don't let the marketing strategies outsmart you just yet.
If I could stop there - but wait there's more
The Downside of Naked Drinks
Unfortunately, the claims made by naked drinks might not align with reality since they contain high levels of sugar that are both unhealthy and downright dangerous to our health; this is often a result of combining sweet fruits like bananas, apples with other flavors that have naturally occurring sugars.
They're marketed as healthy alternatives to soda- sure! But it turns out Naked serve lower nutritional value than regular fruit juices or smoothies. With about 63 grams (or 350%)of sugar per bottle of Fruit Punch flavor in each serving (that’s slightly over four-tablespoon size equivalent), you’d be doing yourself more harm than good drinking these beverages on a consistent basis!
In addition to the dangerously high-sugar levels, consumer reports reveal some batches may contain harmful metals such as lead, although PepsiCo has publicly pushed back against these claims saying its products meet food safety standards.
Let's look at some real facts:
| Flavor | Calories/serving | Sugar/serving |
|---|---|---|
| Berry Blast | 340 /450 ml | 69g/15 oz servings |
| Mighty Mango | 360/16oz | 72g |
| Peach Guava Smoothie | >300 | / |
As for vitamins and minerals? It seems most nutrients essential for one's body function appear absent from their labels except where stated otherwise:
Green Machine Nutrient Value
- Vitamin C: Your body does not make vitamin C, so it’s crucial to get enough through your diet — each bottle contains up to 120 percent.
- Spinach and wheatgrass add iron, chlorella adds Vitamin A(although not fully absorbed),
Nutritionists recommend watching sugar intake- Since these naked drinks overdeliver on this one ingredient, their nutritional values immediately start to decline.
The Verdict: Are Naked Drinks Actually Healthy?
As you might have guessed by now, no, Naked Drinks are not healthy for regular consumption. While they may provide some vitamins and minerals, the high sugar content sets out to undo any health benefits they might offer.
So if you're looking for a healthy pick-me-up, it's safe to say that there are better options out there. Perhaps creating smoothies at home with fresh fruits and veggies sparingly or opting for water infused with natural fruits would be a healthier choice than indulging in the tempting 'Naked' branding of (sugar)masked juices.
The bottom line is while it’s okay to indulge occasionally; consuming too much added sugars can lead to various health problems like obesity and type 2 diabetes –So don’t get deceived by company marketing strategies that often leave crucial information off labels just so sales go up!
In an attempt ‘to reduce harm,’ PepsiCo has mentioned plans towards reformulating its brands including Sunbites containing plant based protein sources etc., We look forward to what changes would roll out across the lineup of products marketed towards promoting overall wellbeing as we know health is wealth!
Most importantly pay attention before grabbing anything off grocery shelves- ingredients listed may contain more trouble disguised than necessary.